Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli has instructed Central Committee members representing Karnali Province not to be swayed by “passing gusts of wind” within the party.
In a three-hour-long meeting, Oli urged all central members from Karnali to stay focused on party-building efforts.
Oli said the entire UML party and its leadership have faced intense storms and challenges to reach where it is today. “What we are seeing now is merely a small gust. It will pass,” Oli said, referring to former President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s decision to return to active politics. “Instead of being distracted, you should focus on building the party in your respective regions with unity and commitment.”
Oli claimed that recent instability within the party was triggered by external forces unsettled by the UML’s growing popularity, its recent political direction and the widely appreciated actions of the government it leads.
According to UML Standing Committee Member and Karnali Province in-charge Gorkha Bahadur Bogati, who was present at the meeting, Oli said it was unfortunate that even respected figures within the party were being influenced by such disruptions.
“None of us had imagined that the former President, who the UML established as a guardian figure of the nation,” Oli said in the meeting, according to Bogati. “As someone who symbolizes the achievements of Nepal’s federal democratic republic, her involvement in a petty dispute over party membership has diminished her own stature.”
Oli also said the central committee blocked her return to the party fold as the former president had set her sights on the party chairmanship by renewing her membership
