By Lucky Chaudhary, Kathmandu, July 2: The 13^th central committee meeting of CPN-UML has begun at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar.

Leader Bamdev Gautam has participated in the meeting while the leaders of Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction are absent.

Mahesh Basnet, central member of the party, informed The Rising Nepal that the meeting kicked off at 12:30 in the afternoon. The meeting of the 10^th General Convention organising committee held on Wednesday had decided to call a central committee meeting today.

"Leader Gautam is present in the meeting while leaders of Nepal-led faction are not present till now," said Sher Bahadur Tamang, secretary at the CPN-UML party office. Prior to this, Gautam, who was actively leading the party unity campaign, had not participated in meetings of either of the factions of CPN-UML.

Although the party has decided to fulfill the demands of the Nepal-led faction, the leaders are not present in the meeting. The meeting of the Nepal-led faction held on Thursday had decided to not participate in the central committee meeting.

Leader Basnet said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was addressing the meeting. According to the CPN-UML leaders, discussions as to the review of the political situation and the party's future work policies would be held in today's meet.