KATHMANDU, AUG 17 - The 13th General Convention of Nepali Congress is hanging in the balance due to uncertainty over promulgation of the new constitution.
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Compounding the situation are challenges to address several institutional and political issues inside the party between two rival factions led by President Sushil Koirala and senior party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, leaders said.
The party leadership has made it clear that the party’s convention will go ahead as scheduled if the constitution is promulgated by August 27, otherwise the meet will be deferred for a few more months.
The party has proposed to hold the convention from September 19-22 in Kathmandu . Among other disputed issues, a proposal to increase the number of party office bearers has invited a fresh tussle between Koirala and Deuba factions. The Koirala camp wants to increase the number of office bearers keeping in mind the high number of aspirants, but the Deuba faction is against that idea.
The party has not started preparations for the convention, such as writing various documents, sending its leaders to the districts to write the party’s political document that will set the tone for national politics in the future.
However, the biggest challenge facing the party is how to resolve the issue of active members who elect the representatives in the party’s general convention.
The row of distributing active membership persists in all 75 districts, with the scheduled district and village level convention just 20 days remaining, said an NC leader, harbouring doubts over managing such dispute in such a short time.
While the party claims that a panel headed by Law Minister Narahari Acharya has been formed to resolve the row, but no decision has been made so far.
“The party’s central working committee meeting will take a decision on all pending issues, including like row over active membership and whether the party can hold the convention on the slated date. But definitely, there are challenges,” said party spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu.
The constitution drafting process, according to him, is going to create a big obstacle in holding the convention on time.
A new situation that emerged after delineation of the states has created a dilemma, said Badu, adding that the convention can still be held on scheduled date even if the row over delineation of states is resolved in the next 10 days. “We have left some options like to stop the constitution making process, or strike an agreement with other parties on parties’ general convention should be conducted in five years and that such provision should be included in the constitution,” he said.
Under the Interim Constitution, political parties are required to convene their general assembly once every five years. However, the NC can make this proviso more flexible with the help of other parties.
Some party leaders have hinted that the forthcoming NC Central Working Committee meeting will defer the convention date even as the rival factions have opened their contact offices--Koirala has opened his in Anamnagar and Deuba in Baneshwor.
Badu said that the party leaders have been holding talks with other political parties on the deferral of the 13th convention. “It is a very complicated situation. We cannot predict what will happen. Let’s see what happens in another 2-3 days,” said NC Joint Secretary General Purna Bahadur Khadka.
The party has yet to form a committee to prepare its policy and programme as well as other mandatory committees for political, social, and economic and charter amendment before the convention.
“This shows the leadership wants to run the party in status quo. I predict that the party’s upcoming CWC meeting will defer the general convention for another couple of months,” said NC youth leader Ramhari Khatiwada.
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