Kathmandu, March 5 -- As the struggle for supremacy in Nepal's politics enters a new and uncertain phase with a session of the restored Lower House on Sunday, noticeably absent are the country's women politicians.

Whether it is about the no-confidence vote that Prime Minister K P Oli may face in the Parliament he dissolved, or the tactics his party rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal may use, or speculation about NCP members switching sides, or even the king-maker role being played by the NC's Sher Bahadur Deuba, female leaders are nowhere in the picture.

"If the leaders of both factions had handled their disagreement in a logical and appropriate manner, the party wouldn't have been divided in the first place," says Nepal Communist Party (NCP) MP,...