Three decades of camaraderie between Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Ram Bahadur Thapa, has spiralled into bitter political rivalry. Dahal and Thapa who have been friends since their days at Rampur Agriculture Campus, were seen ignoring each other at a recent central committee meeting, where Dahal communicated with Thapa through his brother.

Enmity between the two has existed since the early years of the Maoist insurgency and Thapa's disapproval of Dahal's influence within the party and his leadership role during the war is no secret. However, Dahal's decision to hand over the keys of weapons containers in September 2011 without consulting Thapa, the party's military chief, worsened their relationship.

The following conversation between Dahal and Thapa during the rebellion gives an insight into the duo's volatile bond. "We grew up together, worked together but you seem to have forgotten the past," Thapa said, to which Dahal responded sternly, "You are talking of 20 years back. At present, I am the party chairman and you are a central committee member."

Despite the rifts, Thapa never took any sides and remained loyal to the party to prevent a split. "I am not a peak, I don't want to be. I am the foundation that supports the peak," Thapa once said at the Chunwang meeting in 2005. But Dahal's indifference and Bhattarai and Baidya's constant criticism seem to have pushed Thapa to finally join the hardliners.