The Mahakali Treaty was passed at 9:45 pm on 2053 Asoj 4. The internal strife of the UML reached its peak during the passage of the treaty. 26 UML MPs stood against the treaty. There was a huge controversy until night over whether to pass the treaty or not. Finally, the UML issued a whip to all its MPs to vote in favor of the treaty. But those 26 MPs did not participate in the vote by violating the whip. During the ratification of the treaty, 8 MPs, including the UML, voted against it.

The disagreements that occurred during the treaty were spreading within the UML circle. Finally, the anti-treaty leaders, including Bamdev Gautam, Radhakrishna Mainali, CP Mainali, Sahana Pradhan, Trilochan Dhakal, were trying to remove Madhav Nepal from the post of General Secretary. General Secretary Nepal was in favor of getting the Mahakali Treaty ratified. That is why leaders including Gautam had started making internal strategies to remove the General Secretary. They had not said it publicly.

The leaders of the Gautam faction had said that they had agreed to raise the issue of the General Secretary after the agenda was discussed at the Central Committee meeting. After the ratification of the Mahakali Treaty, UML leaders were divided into supporters and opponents of the treaty and had reached the stage of practicing leadership change. The strategy to remove Nepal from the position of General Secretary was devised by the former Deputy General Secretary Gautam faction by not directly raising the issue of the Mahakali Treaty and making it an excuse for not acting in accordance with the spirit of collective leadership. In 2050 Jestha, after the death of the then General Secretary Madan Kumar Bhandari in the Dasdhunga accident, Nepal was made the General Secretary as per the decision of the Central Committee. At that time, a proposal was prepared to remove him from the decision of the Central Committee. The Nepal faction, however, claimed that Gautam did not have the majority to pass the proposal to remove the General Secretary.

Party central member Pradeep Nepal had proposed to dissolve the standing committee in the central committee meeting on Magh 28, 2053 in defense of the Gautam faction. Sources informed that Nepal had threatened to make the proposal public through newspapers if the proposal to dissolve the standing committee was not discussed.

However, some said that the Gautam faction had tried to bring a proposal to remove the general secretary out of concern that he would be prosecuted for violating the party whip during the passage of the Mahakali Treaty. Leaders of the general secretary Nepal faction claimed that Gautam may have brought such a proposal as a bargaining chip to avoid prosecution. UML had asked 26 people who spoke against the treaty and violated the party whip for explanations.

UML President Manmohan Adhikari was also dissatisfied with General Secretary Nepal. Because, the decision of the 30th meeting of the central committee was to issue inter-party directives to the party cadres, while sending correspondence that was different from the decision. Adhikari had said that domestic/foreign reactionary elements were active when there was a wave of opposition to UML in the by-elections held some time ago. Adhikari had expressed this opinion when the party leaders were engaged in internal disputes.

Even after the standing committee meeting was held for five days, the leaders appeared unprepared in the central committee meeting. The leaders had said that the meeting was conducted in a tense atmosphere. General Secretary Nepal had not submitted the report due to the dispute. The report should have been prepared as per the decision made by the standing committee. However, leaders close to General Secretary Nepal had informed that the situation for preparing the report did not arise as the leaders could not reach an agreement.

The meeting discussed the non-implementation of the internal decision to defeat the Congress in Baitadi in the by-election and make the RPP the winner. The meeting had decided to appoint Amrit Bohara to investigate the incident where the decision to make the RPP the winner was violated because the Congress had won that seat. A student leader from Baitadi had said that UML could win the election, so leader KP Sharma Oli had asked for votes in favor of UML. Oli and Pradeep Nepal had expressed the opinion that RPP should not be supported in Baitadi. There was a game going on to replace the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and make RPP's Lokendra Bahadur Chand the Prime Minister. For that, UML had decided to support the RPP candidate in Baitadi to improve relations with RPP. But that could not be implemented.