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Kathmandu, July 14: The ruling CPN-UML has begun internal deliberations on scrapping the 70-year age ceiling for leadership roles. This age limit is a policy it once championed to prevent stagnation and encourage generational change. The reconsideration comes amid renewed political activity by former President Bidya Devi Bhandari, who has rejoined UML and declared her intent to return to active politics.

Though the party previously upheld age limits as a cornerstone of leadership reform, the sudden push to remove the provision is widely seen as a strategic move to clear the path for Bhandari’s political resurgence. UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel has confirmed that a formal proposal to lift the age restriction will be tabled at the upcoming statute convention, effectively allowing senior leaders to remain in positions of power without limit.

Bhandari’s announcement on June 28, along with her party membership renewal, has stirred a political churn within UML. The establishment faction, loyal to party Chair KP Sharma Oli, has begun lobbying to overturn the age cap — a move perceived by many as a defensive measure to maintain Oli’s grip on leadership and prevent Bhandari from emerging as a serious contender at the next convention.

Addressing a meeting of central departments on Sunday, Pokharel asserted that it is the party’s central committee’s responsibility to ratify the suspension of the age limit through the convention. He dismissed ongoing debates over the statute as distractions.

The push to rewrite internal rules isn’t new. In November 2021, during a central committee meeting in Sauraha, Chitwan, then Deputy General Secretary Bishnu Prasad Paudel had already proposed amending certain statute provisions. The Godawari convention that same year had originally fixed the party structure at 225 central members and 15 office bearers, but this was later expanded to 301 members and 19 office bearers to contain an internal crisis. The latest amendments further increased the executive body to 25 members and changed the term-limit provision for the party chair.

Pokharel’s remarks indicate that PM Oli is poised to seek another term as party chair. He cited the appointment of Pushpa Kandel to a third term as Audit Commission chair and the induction of Mukunda Neupane on April 22, 2023 — after crossing the age limit — as precedents for doing away with the age restriction.

However, the internal debate remains far from settled. UML Standing Committee member Karna Bahadur Thapa voiced dissatisfaction over being sidelined during the party departments’ meeting in Chyasal. He accused the leadership of muzzling dissent and turning the convention into a one-sided affair.

He alleged that the meeting was one-sided. “The gathering organized by the Secretariat regarding the statute convention appeared limited to distributing the three amended versions of the party statute printed by the office, following a series of one-sided speeches,” he said.

The party had convened a meeting of all its central departments focused on the upcoming statute convention. The General Secretary delivered his speech and abruptly declared the program over.