Nepal's opposition party splits, Opposition faction forms CPN-UML Samajbadi party

The new party under Madhav Nepal's chairmanship has 95 central committee members out of which 58 are from CPN-UML led by former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

After months of intraparty rift, Nepal's opposition party CPN-UML has formally split as an opposition faction led by Madhav Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal registered a new party named CPN-UML Samajbadi. The new party under Madhav Nepal's chairmanship has 95 central committee members out of which 58 are from CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) led by former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

"We will now have 31 members in the House of Representatives and National Assembly. Out of our 95 central committee members, 58 are from CPN-UML," Rajendra Pandey, one of the members of the newly formed party told reporters.

Earlier on Wednesday, the disgruntled Khanal-Nepal faction leaders Birodh Khatiwada and Jeevan Ram Shrestha had reached the Parliament Secretariat urging it not to take action against them as prescribed by the party Chairman KP Oli. However, the party has yet to finalise the election symbol.

Earlier, the party had proposed a "book" as its election symbol.

On Tuesday, UML had written to the Parliament Secretariat to take action against 14 lawmakers including senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, Ram Kumari Jhankri, Birodh Khatiwada and Jeevan Ram Shrestha. Two lawmakers from Madhav Nepal's party, Khatiwada and Shrestha, had reached the Parliament Secretariat demanding to stop the action against their faction.

The party split comes after President Bidya Devi Bhandari issued an ordinance that allows the political party to split if they want to. Earlier, the Council of Ministers had recommended to President Bhandari to issue the ordinance after proroguing the parliament session on Monday.According to a press statement issued by the President's Office on Wednesday, the ordinance has been issued as per Article 114 (1) on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.

With the issuance of the ordinance, a political party can be split if 20 per cent of members of either the Central Committee or Parliamentary Party are in favor of a split.