Barely a month after exiting from the government, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the third-largest party in the House of Representatives, has faced a power struggle between party chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Deputy General Secretary Janardan Sharma.

The conflict between a wartime Maoist commander Sharma and his “supreme leader” Dahal, which had been simmering for quite a while, surfaced at the party’s standing committee meeting that concluded on Thursday.

Sharma not only spoke against Dahal but also presented a written document to the standing committee. At the meeting, Sharma asked Dahal to step down as party chairman. Dahal has led the party uninterruptedly for over three-and-a-half decades.

At the end of the standing committee meeting, leaders had said that the differences between Dahal and Sharma were resolved.

But that conclusion seems premature.

The two were busy accusing and criticising each other at a public function in Kathmandu. Dahal had to pacify Sharma on Saturday as he complained of not being trusted by Dahal and other Maoist leaders.

“When I was assigned to build an alliance with the CPN-UML, I worked for the same but was tagged as KP Oli’s man,” Sharma said at the function.

Later, the Maoist Centre decided to ally with the Nepali Congress, and he worked for the same as directed by Dahal, Sharma claimed.

“But I was dubbed Sher Bahadur Deuba’s man. When will I be called the Maoist party’s man? When will you call me Prachanda’s man?” said Sharma, pointing to Dahal, who was sitting at the same podium as the chief guest.

Taken aback, Dahal seemed to be consoling Sharma saying that comrade Prabhakar [Sharma] would never split the party, contrary to some media reports.

Dahal rubbished reports that Sharma was trying to split the party as baseless and that the days-long standing committee meeting had dispelled all rumours.

The Maoist party chief and former prime minister, however, admitted that there were still some confusions and that the meeting had decided to look into the matter and make things clear and resolve them with joint effort.

Soon after the party was out of the government, it called the meetings of the standing committee and the secretariat and discussed the Maoist CEntre's future course, including unity with other fringe parties, strengthening the Socialist Front, and building the party’s organisation.

“There were some matters of serious suspicion and some still exist. And the meeting has decided to study and find how such a situation of suspicion emerged,” Dahal said. The Maoist leader promised to study the issue jointly with Sharma and, if needed, the party may form a probe committee.

“We have reached an understanding to properly address the remaining concerns as well,” Dahal added.

Sharma is not alone in demanding that Dahal handover the party’s reins.

Even Maoist Centre senior vice-chair Narayan Kaji Shrestha has asked Dahal to quit the leadership position. A large number of Maoist leaders at the central as well as lower committees want to see an overhaul of the party, said a central member.

“If we fail to transform the party, there will be no hope for us besides surrendering to other parties in the 2027 elections,” the leader said.

Another central committee member however doesn’t trust Dahal to build the party organisation.

“Dahal would rather forge unity with other left parties and, if possible, explore options to contest the upcoming elections jointly with CPN-UML, the country’s largest communist party,” said the central member.

The leader said he was unsure if the ruling UML would turn down Dahal’s proposal to join hands once again.

According to him, Dahal’s strategy is to bring together left-leaning parties and put pressure on the UML, which leads the government with the backing of the Nepali Congress, to make an electoral alliance with the Maoists. The leader argues that the UML is preparing itself internally to contest the elections on its own, without allying with anyone.

“This is the beginning of an infighting in the Maoist Centre because we abandoned the agenda of strengthening the federal, republican and secular Nepal,” said Ram Karki, secretary of the Maoist Centre. “This tussle is unlikely to stop anytime soon.”

Because the conflict emerged under Dahal’s ‘schooling’, Karki claimed.

He recalled that Mohan Baidya, who supported Dahal’s school of thought, engaged in a similar tussle before leaving the party. That conflict did not subside but intensified, leading Baidya to finally split the party, Karki observed.

Later, Baburam Bhattarai, who also emerged allegedly from Dahal’s schooling, led a similar revolt, Karki recalled. “He also deserted the party. This time, too, the tussle has surfaced among those schooled under Dahal, so no one knows the outcome,” said Karki.

For decades, Sharma remained a close confidant of Dahal. But he grew up to be a dissident after Dahal refused to appoint him the general secretary last year. Another deputy general secretary, Barsha Man Pun, was also an aspirant for the post of general secretary.

Sharma and Pun are taken as Dahal’s lieutenants, right from the launch of the Maoist insurgency in 1996. Sidelining both during the 2022 party general convention, Dahal picked Dev Gurung, who had little influence in the party.

Karki described the Congress-UML alliance’s move to oust the Maoist Centre from the government as a good opportunity to strengthen the Maoist party.

“If the Nepali Congress and the UML hadn’t ejected our party from the government, we would have been finished by the time of next elections,” said Karki. “As we have been removed from power three years ahead of the election, there is some room for transformation.”

Senior party leaders have given Dahal two options: transform himself and the party or vacate the chair that he has been occupying for over 35 years.

Another central committee member said that if the conflict was an internal matter and the fight genuine, the party would emerge unscathed. “Otherwise, if external factors are working within the party, then the party will face a serious crisis,” said the leader.

However, some Maoist leaders are confident that the party will not face a grave crisis.

“Janardan ji questioned the party leadership. Isn’t that a good practice in the party?” said Yubaraj Chaulagain, a central committee member. “However, Chairman Dahal is addressing them.”

Chaulagain said that the party leadership would collect reports from the party’s provincial committees and sister organisations and take the right decision based on them.

“There’s the proposal for the party’s transformation. It will be discussed. We will gather more feedback and ideas from the lower committees, and follow them,” said Chaulagain. “Gradually, we will address the issues raised by Janardan ji.”