KATHMANDU: Senior CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Jhalanath Khanal has strongly objected to party Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal’s remark asking him to leave the party, saying no member or leader would abandon the party merely because of an order.

Addressing a press meet on Saturday, Khanal responded to Nepal’s comment made during a Biratnagar press conference, where Nepal reportedly reacted to Khanal’s recent television interview by telling him to quit the party.

Khanal expressed deep disappointment, stating that after decades of working together, he had expected Nepal to better understand the party’s rules, democratic centralism, and internal processes.

“A leader does not leave a party just because someone commands it,” he said, adding that such an order reflects “petty bourgeois thinking.”

He emphasized that internal disagreements should be discussed in party meetings, not handled through public outbursts.

“Impatience and reckless remarks from a communist leader are more painful than the issue itself,” Khanal asserted.