Five months after the CPN (Unified Socialist) retained Madhav Kumar Nepal and Ghanashyam Bhusal as its party chair and general secretary, respectively, the party leadership is still struggling to assign responsibilities of major departments and committees.

The Unified Socialist, which was formed by a splinter faction of the CPN-UML in August 2021, held its general convention in the first week of July and unanimously reelected Nepal and Bhusal as party chief and general secretary, respectively, and decided to elect other 19 office bearers through a voting process.

However, it took two months for the task as they could elect other office bearers only in the last week of August.

The party called a standing committee meeting on Wednesday with an agenda to discuss and finalise the work divisions of the leaders, among other things. However, the party leadership has failed to assign the responsibilities of departments, district in-charges, and various party bodies.

Party leaders claimed that they agreed to defer the agenda for Friday citing that the party needed further discussion on the subject.

“The party has almost completed the task of the work division, but we still need a little more time for the discussion,” Jagannath Khatiwada, a party leader, told the Post. “The final list of the work division will be announced on Friday.”

Earlier, the leaders said that the division of work of the leaders would be proposed on Wednesday and endorsed by Thursday.

Dissatisfied by the delay in assigning the responsibilities, a group of leaders even submitted a memorandum to the party office a few months earlier.

Failing to resolve the issue, leaders in November formed a task force led by party chair Nepal that included senior leader Jhalanath Khanal, Beduram Bhusal, Pramesh Hamal, Ghanendra Basnet, Rajendra Pandey, and General Secretary Bhusal.

Party secretary Somnath Pandey claimed that the delay was caused not due to disputes but due to festivals and other engagements.

“The party has almost completed the work division task and it will accommodate all the leaders. Even some leaders who were earlier said to be dissatisfied will get important responsibilities,” Pandey said. He said preparations were in the final stage to make the responsibilities public on Friday.

There was widespread dissatisfaction in the party regarding the selection of office bearers, politburo members, and central committee members.

Pandey said that the party is preparing to assign responsibilities of all levels of committees on the basis of the ‘one-post, one-person’ concept, meaning that a leader will be given a role in one position to ensure that party leaders get roles in a judicious way.

He added that the system would also help manage leaders at all levels and further strengthen the organisation.