Troubles have clearly been brewing within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), threatening the party unity. The top party honchos appear to be divided, which is evident from the deliberations that are currently taking place in the party's ongoing Standing Committee meeting. The top decision making body of the party was said to hold its discussion on the current problems facing the nation, but the meeting unfortunately veered towards existing rivalry among the top brasses. A section of the Standing Committee members have hurled their diatribes against the Prime Minister. The rival faction members even showed the gumption of asking Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to tender his resignations from the post of PM and party chairman, which the latter has rejected outright.

The matter for the ruling party has been further made worse after the rival factions started holding their separate meetings parallel to the ongoing Standing Committee meeting. The situation in the ruling party reportedly came to a boil when the PM, apparently buffeted by the 'insalubrious acts supposedly carried out by some of the party colleagues,' accused them of being backed by outside forces to unseat him.' This statement from the PM, if we are to believe media reports, was enough to raise the hackles of the rival faction that included the likes of co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, Bam Dev Gautam and Narayan Kaji Shrestha and other Standing Committee members to seek resignation of the PM, who now appears on a defensive and is reportedly working his own way to foil the rival faction's move aimed against him.

The unexpected turn of events has put the ruling party which was united merely two years ago, in a dilemma. A large number of members from the former Maoist party who two years ago had forged unity with the PM's party, and a handful of former UML members, have reportedly gone against him at this crucial juncture, much to chagrin of many NCP supporters and cadres. A common Nepali is also shell-shocked to see the deepening of crisis within Nepal's largest party that has nearly two-thirds majority in the parliament. The unity in the party is definitely an utmost requirement at a time when the country has to deal with dreaded coronavirus outbreak and the highly sensitive issue of boundary delineation with India and matters pertaining to citizenship and MCC deal with the USA.

As the factional trouble deepens in the ruling party, a majority of citizens, many political and NCP watchers do believe that unseating the PM and toppling his government on any pretexts would without doubt prove to be detrimental to the national interests. Also, the simmering rivalry has pushed the gaping national issues to the backburner. Before the crisis within the ruling party spirals out of control, let's hope that sanity prevails among the NCP top stalwarts. They should be mindful that this is not time to push the party towards break-up. And to maintain all-necessary unity in the two-year-old party, these leaders have no option but to sit for dialogues to settle their issues in an amicable way.