The meeting of the Central Committee of the CPN (Maoist Centre), which was being held on Thursday at Pragya Bhawan, Kathmandu, has been brought to a halt following questions from the Central Committee members on the party chairman’s selection criteria for politburo members.

The Central Committee meeting that started on Sunday had failed to move forward on Tuesday and Wednesday following the controversy surrounding Finance Minister Janardan Sharma, who is an aspirant for general secretary of the party.

Leaders started raising questions about the criteria as soon as Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal recited the list of 125 politburo members.

“The chairman has sought an hour’s time to rejig the list of politburo members after the leaders sought his reasons for the criteria set for selection,” said Renu Chand, a central committee member, who has been proposed for politburo member of the party. “Leaders have questioned why some qualified leaders and regions were not incorporated in the list.”

Some leaders claimed that Dahal is aiming to promote leaders close to him—his daughter, Renu Dahal and his daughter-in-law, Bina Magar—and those close to some senior leaders to politburo members.

According to Chand, the situation now is such that those included on the list are anxious their names would be scratched off before it is endorsed by the Central Committee while the ones who did not make it to the list are hopeful to be included in the new list Dahal is supposedly preparing.

“Chairman has said he will reshuffle the list to make it inclusive,” Chand said.

With no concrete criteria set for the selection of the leaders in certain party committees, Dahal has been picking them at his own discretion seeking suggestions from the former Standing Committee members and leaders close to him.

Since there are lots of aspirants in the party for the politburo, Standing Committee and office bearers, Dahal has been failing to make the selection and he is strongly against an election to select the party committees.

According to a former Standing Committee member, who wished not to be named fearing retribution, Dahal had urged the leaders in a recent meeting of the former Standing Committee members to support the list he presented at the Central Committee meeting.

“We had no option and we all agreed to support whatever he proposes,” said the former Standing Committee.