Behind Oli’s sly return to power

July 22, 2024

KATHMANDU – Much has been said and written about CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s fall and CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli’s rise to power over the past two weeks or so. That Oli would pull the rug out from under Dahal was almost certain in March itself when the two communist leaders plotted the Nepali Congress’s ouster from the government—it was a matter of when, not if. Oli had been scheming all along to be back in Baluwatar. Nevertheless, the odds were not stacked in favour of him, the leader of the second-largest party. Dahal was using every trick in the book to cling to power, and extracting support from Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, his traditional adversary, was not quite in immediate sight.

Some turns of events then proved to be a godsend for him. As Oli was working on his script for return to Baluwatar, some subtexts emerged. His own concerns amid being called out for some scandals and the internal churn in his party fuelled by former President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s possible return to active politics and the Deubas’ growing unease that skeletons would start tumbling out of their closet.

In a calculated move, Congress President Deuba offered Oli the prime ministerial post on a silver platter.

Oli hastily wove a subterfuge of constitutional amendments “to ensure political stability”. Now Oli and Deuba have made extricating the country out of the perpetual political instability their main agenda, in what looks paradoxical as they actually are largely the drivers of this instability. While the Dahal government was a failure on various fronts, the UML-Congress dispensation inspires little hope—a look at the faces in the Oli Cabinet speaks volumes.

“Nationalist” Oli

When