KATHMANDU: National Assembly member and Vice-Chairman of NCP Bamdev Gautam has criticized the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli for dissolving the parliament by securing party unity.
With the dissolution of the parliament, the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has divided into Oli and Prachanda-Madhav groups. Gautam, who did not belong to either group, said in a meeting of the National Assembly on Thursday that there was no justification for splitting the party.
He said that Prime Minister Oli’s working style has caused a lot of controversy in the party. But Gautam said he never thought a no-confidence motion would defeat his own party leader. “For the last eight or nine months, I have been sitting in the Madhav-Prachanda group and thwarting the no-confidence motion to preserve party unity,” he said. But this time I was not included in the no-confidence motion.”
“I advised him that when the leaders in the party are in the minority, he should resign even if he is the prime minister,” he said. “He had the last chance to save the party. He could set an example.”
He said he did not support the dissolution of parliament and called it an unconstitutional move. He said the issue was under consideration in the SC’s Constitutional Court and it was politically insulting to call it unconstitutional.
Stating that the case against the NCP was under consideration at the apex court, he speculated that if the court ruled in favor of Rishi Kattel, one party could become the CPN-UML and the UCPN (M).
