By TRN Online, Kathmandu, July 21: A meeting of the CPN (UML) faction led by senior leader Jhalanath Khanal and Madhav Kumar Nepal has endorsed a proposal to strengthen party unity.

Raghuji Pant, UML standing committee member, informed that the meeting held at a Buddhanagar-based party venue also deplored the anti-party unity activities carried out by the cadres of the mass organizations close to the party establishment.

"We concluded such unhealthy activities severely affect the party unity," he said.

UML vice-chairman Bihm Bahadur Rawal stayed absent in today's meeting and that effort will be made to persuade him to attend the meeting next time, according to Pant.

Leader Pant said they had not received any clarification letter from the party establishment and that they would decide on how to respond to such letters when they get them.

UML establishment led by chair KP Sharma Oli had recently decided to ask clarifications from lawmakers from UML who voted for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives a few days back. 

As many as 22 lawmakers of UML, most of them close the dissent faction led by Khanal and Nepal, had voted for Deuba, going against party directives to vote against him. 

He said the faction was not for a split in the party as their demand was that the party should be run in accordance with the established rules, norms, and procedures.

He said there was no agenda in the meeting with regard to joining or not in the government.