Kathmandu, Sept. 11 -- Seven weeks of tug-of-war in the ruling Nepal Communist Party finally seems to have ended.

The players, however, have switched sides. Pushpa Kamal Dahal has now once again extracted "executive chairman" status and sided with chair KP Sharma Oli, leaving Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal seething.

When the party held its Standing Committee meeting on June 24, Dahal, Nepal and Khanal were baying for Oli's blood, demanding his resignation both as party chair and prime minister.

The Standing Committee meeting concluded on Friday, eighty days later, saying the party has managed to iron out all major differences.

"Dahal will look after the party works with executive powers while Oli will focus on the government...