KP Oli dissolves Nepal parliament amid feud within ruling Communist party
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New Delhi, Dec 21: Amid the increasing discontent against his leadership and feuds within the ruling party, Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli effected a constitutional “coup” on Sunday by suddenly dissolving the House of Representatives. President Bidya Bhandari announced the dissolution and declaring fresh elections in May 2021.
The Prime Minister had summoned an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers on Sunday morning after a series of meetings with party's top leadership and ministers on Saturday. This development of the Oli-led administration comes amid a rising rift inside the ruling party and the house adjourned for the longest period of time in Nepal's history.
This has resulted in the country's main opposition party Nepali Congress has called for on an emergency meeting later in the day. Apart from this, another political party named Rashtriya Prajatantra Party had called its working committee meeting. Besides, leaders of the Janata Samajbadi Party are flying back to Kathmandu. Moreover, the leaders of the ruling Communist Party's Co-Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal's faction are also holding a meeting at his residence.
Now, Oli will be up against Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, who is also the executive chair of the ruling Nepal Communist Party and also a former PM. Besides, seven ministers who are close to Prachanda and another former PM, Madhav Nepal have resigned protesting Oli’s move.
Meanwhile, India has not spoken about the development saying it is a Nepal's internal matter. However, it is keeping an eye on the events, given the testy relations with Nepal in the past year. These turn of events might not be in favour of China either as its ambassador in Kathmandu has been working to keep the NCP united.
Nepal's Constitution does not have a provision for the House dissolution, the move is likely to be challenged in the court. The matter could be contested and moved to the Supreme Court. But, according to the reports, the court would likely rule in Oli’s favour. Oli boasts an over two-thirds majority in the parliamentary party, so he is not under legal danger. Besides, some members of the Prachanda group — industry minister Lekha Raj Bhatta and home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa — have refused to resign.
Speaking on the opposition parties, the principal opposition party, Nepali Congress, will be having difficulties as they are leadership and organisational troubles. Janata Samajbadi Party, the Madhesi party newly formed from the merger of Samajbadi Party Nepal and Rashtriya Janata Party, is also fighting leadership battles and is unlikely to take on Oli. Politically, therefore, Oli doesn’t have any meaningful opposition.
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India and Nepal have been at odds since the map-making controversy last year, as the Oli government moved to amend the Nepalese constitution to show Indian territories as Nepalese. This led to several months of frosty ties between India and Nepal, at a time when Kathmandu was actively courting China, and India and China were in a stand-off in eastern Ladakh.
It took a phone conversation between Oli and Narendra Modi to break the odds. Following the telephonic conversation, India has separately sent RAW chief Samant Goel, Army chief Gen MM Naravane and foreign secretary Harsh Shringla to Kathmandu.