“Factionalism is unacceptable in our party,” Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who also chairs the CPN-UML, said at a party meeting on Sunday.

Some people might provoke factional feuds on the pretext of strengthening internal democracy in the party, but that is not allowed in the UML, Oli said.

“Some of you might take it lightly, arguing that we have heard such dictats since a long time ago,” Oli emphasised. “But it is not something to ignore. It is something to heed seriously.”

Oli cautioned the party members against groupism in the party, while administering the oath to the newly appointed vice-chair of the party, Guru Baral, two standing committee members, Mukunda Neupane and Lilanath Shrestha, and 17 central committee members at the party’s central office in Chasyal, Lalitpur on Sunday.

Though Chairman Oli ruled against promoting factional activities within the party, some UML leaders accuse him for giving rise to factionalism.

It is common practice worldwide to pursue a “two-line struggle” in a communist party. During the party convention, rival leaders often present parallel political documents.

While the incumbent party chief presents a political paper, those from the anti-establishment camp float a different paper to counter its ideas. This eventually sets the ground for a two-line struggle in a communist party.

Though communists tried to sugarcoat the two-line struggle as a way to rejuvenate party activities and strengthen intra-party democracy, political analysts say such exercise is limited to propping up factions. 

For Nepali politicians, factions are platforms to exercise power. “When two or more leaders with parallel influential groups exist within the party, that often results in factionalism,” Keshav Dahal, a political analyst, told the Post. “But when there are no leaders to challenge the party’s top leader, there remain fewer chances for groupism.”

After a group of UML leaders under former party chiefs Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal split the party to form the CPN (Unified Socialist) in 2021, there was no one to openly challenge Oli. Therefore, the UML doesn’t have a faction now running activities parallel to the party establishment from the centre to the grassroots, which used to be the case in the past.

Oli was the one who led a strong faction for many years when Nepal or Khanal was the party chief.

Then, why is Oli himself afraid of factional activities in the party?

UML leaders say there are no reasons for the party chair to fear from an exercise of intra-party democracy if the top leaders don’t promote factional activities.

“It is the duty of the party leader not to engage in factionalism within the party, rather than urging party members not to do so,” Usha Kiran Timilsina, a central committee member of the UML, told the Post. “If the leadership does not promote this, party members will automatically avoid factionalism.”

Another UML leader lambasted Oli for being the party's arbitrary leader and a promoter of groupism.

A UML standing committee member said the party’s central secretariat meeting on August 1 showed favouritism while deciding a work division among top leaders. He claimed that leaders close to Oli and General Secretary Shankar Pokharel got important responsibilities while others were sidelined.

When Prithvi Subba Gurung, the minister for communication and information technology in the Oli Cabinet, is relieved of party responsibilities after becoming minister, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel of the same Cabinet is given the party’s responsibility as well, the leader told the Post, requesting anonymity.

According to the work division decided last week, Paudel still coordinates the monitoring of the party’s organisational activities. Gurung had earlier got the responsibility of leading the party’s parliamentary affairs department. Now Gurung heads no department in the UML.

The newly appointed central committee members are loyal to party chair Oli and General Secretary Pokharel, the leader claimed.

But Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, who was sworn in as a central member on Sunday, ruled out factionalism in the party.

“It was not groupism that party chair Oli pointed to while administering the oath to us,” Pokharel told the Post. “The party chair only tried to make party members aware of the possible foul play against the UML.”

Despite being one of the organising members of the 10th general convention of the UML held in Chitwan in November 2021, Pokharel, who earlier was a central committee member and two-time lawmaker, was excluded from the committee.

Left-leaning analysts also claim that there is intense rivalry between various groups at the provincial level even if there is no vertical division at present.

“But the party is not free from groups exercising parallel activities within the organisation,” Jhalak Subedi, a left-leaning political analyst, told the Post.

Political analyst Dahal also claims that even though there are no leaders in UML to challenge the party chair at present, there are struggles between party leaders to project themselves as being close to Oli.

The tussle visible among second-rung leaders while picking the chief minister in Lumbini is the latest case in point.

When the Congress and the UML decided to form the Lumbini provincial government under the UML’s leadership, many saw UML’s Lumbini Assembly leader Leela Giri as a natural candidate for chief minister.

However, Chet Nath Acharya, the deputy leader of the assembly, was appointed the chief minister on July 22. Giri is close to party vice-chair Bishnu Paudel while Acharya is loyal to Pokharel. As General Secretary Pokharel is closer to Oli, the party chief directly instructed Lumbini assembly members of the UML to support Acharya—not Giri.

“We are not sure why the party selected Acharya instead of Giri, but we believe it was due to the rivalry between party vice-chair Paudel and General Secretary Pokharel,” a provincial assembly member then told the Post on the condition of anonymity.

“Due to the personal rivalry between Paudel and Pokharel, Acharya got the opportunity despite Giri having been considered the chief minister.”

During the party's provincial convention held in September last year, Paudel and Pokharel were fiercely engaged in electing leaders loyal to them as the provincial committee chair. The same rivalry was evident while electing the chief minister, according to the leader.

Soon after the appointment, Giri had said that if central leaders try to embrace their close supporters while sidelining others, that could sow the seeds of groupism in the party.

However, when the Post contacted Giri on Sunday, he refused to comment on the selection of the chief ministerial candidate.

Party insiders said that just like the Paudel-Pokharel rivalry in Lumbini, there are similar exercises in other regions as well. For instance, senior leaders Gurung and Khagraj Adhikari are vying for a grip on the party committees in Gandaki Province.