As the CPN-UML’s Second National Statute Convention is set to kick off in Godavari, Lalitpur on Friday, party chair KP Sharma Oli has come up with a political report stressing strict discipline, unity, and a roadmap for “socialism with Nepali characteristics”.

The gathering, however, is set to be overshadowed by internal dissent, with senior leaders opposing recent resolutions for denying former president Bidya Devi Bhandari party membership and for not abiding by the age bar and terms limit for the party leadership.

Leaders from the dissident faction have also registered a separate document challenging the leadership’s approach.

As voices of dissent grow against chair Oli, the political report to be presented by him on Friday at the statute convention emphasises the need for upholding party discipline.

“The party acknowledges that in order to gain people’s confidence and secure victory in elections, internal unity and discipline are essential,” reads the political report to be presented by Oli at Friday’s convention.

“Divisive tendencies, factionalism, and internal conflicts have weakened the organisation in the past, and such tendencies must be firmly controlled,” the report reads. “The leadership has emphasised that every member must put collective interests above personal ambitions.”

It further pledges to implement effective mechanisms for ensuring accountability, transparency, and democratic practices within the organisation.

In his political report, which was leaked to the media after discussion in the party’s Central Secretariat meeting on Thursday, Oli has accused the Nepali Congress of failing to safeguard achievements and has described the Maoists as an antithesis.

Oli has made his views public through the political report to be presented at the statute convention. The report says that the Congress, the main coalition partner of the Oli-led government, is already a “tested force”, while the “Maoist Centre is no longer in the race for ideological and political leadership”.

“Congress is the country’s oldest party and it has played a positive role in the democratic movement. However, when it comes to defending democracy, governing the state, and building a prosperous society, it has already become a tested force,” Oli’s report says. “After 1951, it failed to unite revolutionary forces and safeguard the movement.”

The report also mentions that most of the agendas pursued by the Maoist Centre have failed.

“The armed struggle started by ‘Prachanda’ [Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal] as an antithesis to People’s Multiparty Democracy, the insistence that a communist party without an army is not a communist party, and the rejection of multiparty competition in favour of one-party rule under people’s dictatorship—these ideas had already failed long ago,” reads Oli’s document.

Although chair Oli has stressed the need for discipline, UML leaders interpret Oli’s notion of discipline as nothing more than not going against him. According to a UML leader, this has been the case ever since Oli was first elected party chair in 2014.

Meanwhile, a dissenting document was registered at the UML central office in Chyasal on Thursday, opposing, among other things, the decision not to grant party membership to former President Bhandari.

UML Standing Committee member Karna Bahadur Thapa submitted the 27-page document and accused the party of drifting away from democratic practices.

Thapa, a staunch supporter of the provision of a two-term limit and 70-year age ceiling for executive positions that Oli himself had championed, has criticised Oli for discarding the principles after becoming the party chief.

Thapa has consistently criticised the tendency to cling to posts for life and the leadership’s attempts to make decisions in violation of due process. In his dissenting opinion too, he elaborated on the same concerns.

Of late, Thapa has stood in favour of allowing former President Bhandari to rejoin the party, with a plan to promote her as party chief.

Amid a press conference organised at the party office on Wednesday, General Secretary Shankar Pokhrel also had hinted that Thapa’s dissenting voice would be given space at the statute convention.

Thapa argues that the 70-year age limit and two-term provision, once advocated by Chairman Oli himself, are scientific and should not be removed from the party statute.

“The claim that the party’s secretariat decided to scrap the 70-year age limit and the two-term ceiling is wrong,” he said. “This policy was first introduced at the seventh general convention held in Janakpur at Oli’s own initiative, and was institutionalised in the eighth and ninth conventions.”

On the eve of the statute convention, the CPN-UML on Thursday held a secretariat meeting. Although the meeting was initially expected to discuss objections raised by vice-chairs Yubaraj Gyawali and Surendra Pandey regarding the Central Committee’s July 21-22 decisions, Thursday’s meeting did not discuss the matter, according to the party deputy general secretary Pradeep Gyawali.

Gyawali and Pandey have been demanding that the decision to deny former President Bhandari membership be corrected.

The secretariat meeting decided that the differing opinion registered by Standing Committee member Thapa would be discussed at the Statute Convention, said Deputy General Secretary Gyawali.

He added that the issue of former President Bhandari’s party membership had already been settled by the previous Central Committee meeting, so it did not come up in the Secretariat meeting.

“We already concluded this issue, so there was no discussion on this topic,” Gyawali said to the press after the Secretariat meeting.

At the convention, Chairman Oli will table the party’s political report, while vice-chair and Deputy Prime Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel will present the proposal on statute amendment. General Secretary Shankar Pokhrel will present the organisational report.

Besides that, Keshav Badal will present a report on behalf of the Central Discipline Commission, Pushpa Kandel for the Central Accounts Commission, Bijaya Subba for the Central Election Commission, and Amrit Kumar Bohara for the Central Advisory Committee. This arrangement was announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

Representatives will be divided into groups to discuss the documents.

Oli’s report also proposes a special political resolution aimed at building the foundations of socialism under the guiding principle of People’s Multiparty Democracy, and establishing socialism with Nepali characteristics. It suggests a roadmap for advancing the national aspiration of a “Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali”, and outlines plans to position the UML as a decisive national force.

According to the UML, a total of 2,341 participants will attend the statute convention—2,026 as representatives and 315 as organising committee members.