As tenure of Central Committee expired in May, it was up to him to form new one to hold party’s convention, he says.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has claimed that the Central Committee of the ruling Nepal Communist Party he formed after inducting loyalists to it is the legitimate Central Committee of the party.

In a response to the Election Commission’s asking for clarification on the dispute within the party, Oli claimed that the erstwhile Central Committee of the party had a fixed tenure of two years and it expired on May 15 after the general convention couldn’t be convened by then.

Oli added that as serious questions were raised about the legitimacy of the Central Committee, he as the principal office-bearer, formed the new Central Committee and set fresh dates for the general convention, the supreme decision-making body of the party.

In his letter to the Election Commission, Oli, who leads one of the factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party after it split into two, refused to accept that the party had split and maintained that his group—not the one led by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Madhav Nepal faction—should be recognised as the “real” Nepal Communist Party.

“Meetings of the Standing Committee and the Central Committee held after that period last year had no meaning,” Oli said in his letter to the constitutional body, which had earlier asked both factions of the ruling party to present evidence to support their claim over the party.

Both the Oli and the Dahal-Nepal camps are after the ruling party’s electoral symbol (the sun) as it is widely recognised by voters and carries the legacy of the Nepal Communist Party and the erstwhile UML party.

As per Section 44 (1) of the Political Parties Act-2017, following a split in a party, the faction that claims to be the legitimate one must substantiate its claim with, among other things, signatures of at least 40 percent of the members of the Central Committee within 30 days.