Kathmandu, October 13: After growing internal pressure for leadership transition, the UML has decided to hold its 11th General Convention in the last week of Mangsir (December). The decision was made at the party’s Central Secretariat meeting held in Gundu, Bhaktapur, on Sunday, which agreed to convene the convention within two months.

According to UML Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Gyawali, the Central Committee meeting will finalize the exact date and venue for the convention. The Central Committee meeting is scheduled for Ashoj 29–31 (mid-October). The party’s 10th General Convention was held in Mangsir 2078 (December 2021), during which KP Sharma Oli was elected chairman for a second term.

At the Statute Convention held in Godawari, Lalitpur, from Bhadra 20–22 (early September), provisions that limited executive positions to two terms and set a 70-year age cap for office bearers were removed—effectively paving the way for Oli to pursue a third term as chairman.

Following the Gen-Z movement, calls for leadership transfer have intensified within the UML. During the Secretariat meeting, several leaders urged Oli to hand over leadership, but he has so far refused to step down. However, Oli now faces a difficult situation as even some of his long-time trusted allies have begun standing against him.

Vice-chair Bishnu Poudel, who served as Finance Minister under Oli before the Gen-Z movement, former Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung, and Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai—who had previously supported Oli during the Statute Convention—have now aligned themselves with the faction advocating for party and leadership restructuring.

People’s News Monitoring Service.