Nepal, Jan. 20 -- Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's political fate hangs in the balance. With Nepali Congress taking an oppositional stand, his status as the ethnonational chieftain stands challenged. Though nothing is ever certain in the game of politics, a vertical division in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) appears to be a foregone conclusion. He is no longer the Supremo that once held sway over the polity and society of the country.

The decision of dissolving the Pratinidhi Sabha in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic is comparable to the declaration of promulgating a contested statute in the middle of Gorkha Earthquake aftershocks through the 16-point conspiracy. But five years after his phenomenal rise as the saviour of Khas-Ar...