After protests over financial misdeeds caused the UCPN-Maoist’s seventh plenum to be postponed by a day, the meeting was stalled again on Friday because of fresh protests against party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and vice chairman Baburam Bhattarai.

In the opening session of the plenum, Dahal had vowed to end factionalism within the party. But an ethno-federal representative revealed that Dahal and Bhattarai loyalists chanted slogans accusing each other’s leaders of wrongdoing. A fist fight broke out and cadres were seen hurling chairs at each other.

The debate emerged after leaders of the Maoists’ Bhojpura ethno-federal unit could not decide whether to follow Dahal or Bhattarai’s political line. Journalists who were covering the plenum were denied entry after things started to heat up.