The CPN (Maoist Centre) has concluded that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s China visit was a failure as he could do nothing other than sign the agreement that was readied by the erstwhile government led by party chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Addressing the party’s standing committee meeting on Friday, Dahal said that the Framework for Belt and Road Cooperation signed during Oli’s visit is nothing new. It was planned during his prime ministership and Oli just formalised it through the agreement.

“The framework is a cut and paste of the document finalised during my prime ministership,” Ganesh Shah, the party’s secretary, quoted Dahal as saying at the meeting. “Oli couldn’t make any breakthrough during the China visit.”

No party leaders questioned Dahal’s statement.

The leader of the opposition had made a similar claim while addressing the party’s mass meeting in his hometown of Chitwan on Tuesday. He had claimed that Oli had been circulating the photocopies of the agreement signed during Dahal’s China visit. Dahal last visited China in September last year.

After multiple rounds of negotiations, Nepal and China on December 4 signed the 10-point framework for BRI cooperation, opening doors for Chinese funds for developing projects under the BRI. The funding modalities, however, will be negotiated for each project individually.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already made public the agreement undersigned by acting Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai and deputy head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission Liu Sushe on behalf of the respective countries. The commission is the focal agency in China, tasked with the development of BRI projects.

Neither Dahal nor other party leaders, however, were critical of the agreement. There was a common opinion that the signing of the framework could open the doors for the country’s development, according to leaders present at the meeting.

The standing committee meeting called to finalise the agenda for the party's central committee meet slated to kick off on Tuesday ended up postponing the meet.

“The central committee meeting has been deferred till January 5, 2025 due to lack of preparation,” said the party’s spokesperson Agni Sapkota. “A standing committee meeting will be held for three days starting January 2 to finalise the agenda for the central committee meeting.”

The Maoist Centre is negotiating with some parties including the one led by Netra Bikram Chand for a possible merger. Dahal believes there will be some concrete progress in the merger by January 5. “In the central committee meeting, the chairman was to give a message that the party is consolidating its strength by uniting with Chand and others,” said a leader.

There is a possibility that former vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun will be given some party role—possibly vice-chair—at the upcoming central committee meeting. Pun, who has started attending the Maoist Centre’s office-bearer meetings, however, was absent from the Friday meeting.

Talking to media after the meeting, Sapkota said the outcome of the recent local level bypolls has foiled the attempts of the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML to lead the country towards a two-party system. The Maoist Centre had won 11 out of 42 seats where the by-elections were held.

Elated by the results, Dahal is preparing to present it as an indication of his party gaining ground and erosion of people’s trust towards the Congress and the UML, during the party’s central committee meeting.

“The by-election results also indicate people’s increasing dissatisfaction and anger at the Congress-UML government,” said Sapkota, while making the meeting’s decisions public.

In the meeting, the party leadership also decided to intervene in the leadership selection in its wing All Nepal National Independent Student Union (Revolutionary). Concluding that the union failed to hold its general convention, the party decided to pick the leadership while also imposing an age bar for student politics.

After several postponements, the national jamboree of the union started in September. However, it was suspended without electing the leadership following a dispute over the selection of convention representatives and whether or not to set an age bar for the leadership.

The convention that was scheduled to kick off on December 8 was postponed by the Maoist Centre’s standing committee meeting on December 5.

“The party will intervene and select a new leadership in the student wing. An age bar—possibly of 30 years—will also be enforced,” a party leader told the Post. For years, the Maoist Centre’s leadership has directly picked leaders of its student wing.

A group of student leaders led by vice-chair Keshab Rawal has been opposing the party’s regular interference in the union, saying, “It (the party leadership) thinks the students are its slaves and abide by whatever decision it makes.” Rawal, who had once staged a hunger strike demanding union’s general convention, has threatened a fresh protest against the party’s decision.

A section of the student leaders claim Dahal is reluctant about holding the general convention fearing that his favourite candidate may lose.