The Parliamentary Party meeting of the CPN-UML held at Baluwatar on Saturday has decided to amend the statute of its Parliamentary Party and was sent to the party's Central Committee meeting for endorsement.

During the meeting, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is also the leader of the CPN-UML Parliamentary Party, said the party will seek clarification from its lawmakers who are involved in ‘factional politics’.

“The meeting of the Parliamentary Board will take necessary decisions regarding the action against the unruly lawmakers of the party after the Central Committee endorses the amended statute,” said Bishal Bhattarai, Chief Whip of the UML Parliamentary Party. “The Central Committee meeting is undergoing at Baluwatar now.”

With the preparations of the Oli-led faction of the CPN-UML to initiate action against the other faction led by Jhalanath Khanal and Madhav Kumar Nepal, who are holding separate gatherings and reviving party committees, conflict within the ruling party will escalate as both the factions are not in a mood to budge.

But the lawmakers close to Khanal and Nepal faction have decided to boycott the meeting registering their written dissatisfaction to Oli.

While the meeting was going on at Baluwatar lawmakers Som Prasad Pandey, Jeevan Ram Shrestha and Yagya Raj Sunuwar, who belong to the Nepal-Khanal faction had reached Baluwatar and handed over a letter on behalf of 38 lawmakers of the House of Representatives.

UML has 120 lawmakers in the 275-member lower house.

“We have handed over the dissatisfaction letter of 38 lawmakers to our leader of the Parliamentary Party,” said Som Prasad Pandey, a lawmaker close to Khanal-Nepal faction. “We have said that we would join all the party’s meetings if they were held following the party’s procedures as stipulated by the party’s statute.”

The 38 lawmakers close to Khanal-Nepal faction, who had gathered at the Singha Durbar-based Parliamentary Party office, had drafted a five-point written dissatisfaction letter.

According to the letter, there is no proper Parliamentary Party statute of CPN-UML after the general election of 2017 as the one drafted for the Constituent Assembly cannot be applicable now.

“A new statute of the Parliamentary Party must be endorsed by the Central Committee elected by the ninth national convention,” states the letter. “Any activity made against that clear cut legal process is against the law and party’s statute. Such activities cannot be accepted and encouraged by any of the elected members of the CPN-UML.”

Oli, according to lawmakers present at the meeting, however, had said he won’t accept anything coming from any faction of the party and if they had any grumblings they should come to the meeting.

On the other hand, the decision of the Parliamentary Party to amend the existing Parliamentary Party statute has been forwarded to the party’s Central Committee meeting at Baluwatar for approval in which the members close to Khanal-Nepal faction have not attended, according to Bhattarai.

During today’s meeting at Baluwatar vice-chairman of the party Bamdev Gautam, who had been neutral in the conflict between Oli and Khanal-Nepal factions, was also present.

Besides Gautam, a nominated member of the National Assembly, another member of the National Assembly from CPN (Maoist Centre) Ram Bahadur Thapa, who is also the Home Minister in Oli’s government but belongs to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), were also present besides lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel, who was with Khanal-Nepal faction.