Saptari – The CPN faction of Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal has taken exception to the Election Commission for writing to it to stake claims for official recognition.

Writing a response to the Election Commission’s letter on Tuesday, the faction has said it need not stake claims. Lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, who is also a legal professional, told Setopati that the Election Commission’s letter is irrelevant as the Dahal-Nepal faction is the ruling party’s mainstream.”We don’t need to file complaint as we are the mainstream. We have two-third majority on the basis of the list of central committee members at the time of unification,” he stated. “We have updated all our facts. The Election Commission wrote a letter asking us to come staking claims. We have written that the letter is irrelevant.”Central member and advocate Mukti Narayan Pradhan claimed it is wrong of the Election Commission to write the letter. He argued that it should have written to the faction of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to stake claims and the Dahal-Nepal faction for updates.”We and the Oli faction held separate meetings on December 22 due to our internal problems. The Oli faction apparently wrote a letter making some updates. They formed a central committee of more than 1,000 members,” Pradhan said. “We wrote a letter to the Election Commission informing that we have taken disciplinary action against Chairman KP Sharma Oli and elected Madhav Kumar Nepal to replace Oli. There has been no other decision apart from that. The Election Commission should take the decision taken by two-third majority normally.”

He pointed that the Oli faction does not even have enough central members to constitute quorum and 40 percent central members necessary to officially split the party. “Everything will be settled if the Election Commission were to reconcile the current record with that submitted at the time of unification. The Election Commission must work in accordance to the laws.”