senior leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal have remained absent in a programme organised to mark the 63rd birthday of late Madan Bhandari, the then General Secretary of the party, who was killed in a road accident.CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, however, was present in the programme which is underway. The programme has been organised by Madan Bhandari Foundation at a Babarmahal-based party palace in Kathmandu.Disputes have escalated in CPN-UML after Sports Minister Puroshottam Poudel appointed, Keshav Bista, a controversial person, as the member secretary of the National Sports Council.Dispute among the top leaders of the party rose when leaders Nepal and Khanal asked Minister Poudel not to resign under any pressure after Chairman Oli had asked the sports minister to step down from the post.Meanwhile, UML leader and wife of late Bhandari, Bidhya Bhandari, informed that leader Nepal could not attend the programme due to his workschedule and leader Khanal was absent as he is attending another programme for quake victims.