Discipline within the party, performance of ministers, anti-corruption stance and debate on date of party convention
In the meeting of the Congress Central Working Committee, there was a strong dissatisfaction with the working style of the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the ministers, but most of the central members remained silent on the matter of finding an alternative to the alliance.
In favor of finding an alternative to the government, Shekhar Koirala, the leader of the other side of the establishment, and some members of his party have given only token expressions.
On the first day of the meeting that started on June 16, General Minister Gagan Kumar Thapa expressed that there is no alternative to the government, but a change in the working style is necessary. However, Congress leader Shekhar Koirala questioned the justification of the alliance. Koirala questioned the legitimacy of the alliance by saying that there was an equation between the two major parties in the parliament by advancing the agenda of amending the constitution, but even after a year, the amendment of the constitution has not been approved.
He also made it clear about the reason for opposing the equation between Congress and UML. Koirala said that although it is his policy to form a government under the leadership of the Congress, there is no question of forming a government under the leadership of the UML. After Koirala questioned the legitimacy of the alliance, Home Minister Ramesh Lakhtar countered and said that the equation of Congress and UML will last till 084. After that, in the meeting, the members had serious questions about the working style of the Prime Minister and Ministers, but they did not question the legitimacy of the alliance. Discipline within the party, efficiency of ministers, stand against corruption and the date of party convention have been debated.
When the agenda of the meeting was presented, General Minister Thapa and later when Home Minister Akhtar stood in favor of the continuation of the current alliance, the other members did not have an opinion about the alternative, Meen Bishwakarma, head of the Central Propaganda Department, said. Ministers did not understand public sentiment. Performance and ability were not seen. People's aspirations could not be fulfilled. Economic reform did not progress as expected. Either the ministers should change their working style. If not, there is an opinion that the minister should be changed," Vishwakarma said. "The government's alternative has not been discussed."
A central member of the Congress said that since the meeting was being held amid the discussion of reorganizing the cabinet, the leaders, including MPs, were not aggressive towards the alliance, but limited to criticizing their own ministers. "Many will say what is the next election, what is it, this time they would have been able to become a minister, because of their greed, the level of criticism that was expected towards the government and the coalition was not seen. "The party chairman himself is adamant about the alliance, so he may not want to block his way to become a minister by opposing the alliance, but in informal conversations, there is still distrust towards the alliance," said the member.
According to him, the party leadership and the top leaders are suspicious about the political appointment tussle, the allegations against the home minister in the visit visa case and the corruption case filed against the president of United Samajwadi Madhav Kumar Nepal in the Patanjali land case. "Since the options are narrow and more unstable than the current one, the leaders could not go in the direction of thinking about the alternative of the alliance," he added. He said that recent developments have increased the concern for traditional parties and the issue of Prime Minister ignoring party strength was raised in the meeting. There were no views that the alliance itself should be changed. It seemed that many leaders were hopeful that the cabinet would be reorganized. That's why there may not have been a loud statement about the alliance," he said. In the
meeting, the members gave loud expressions about the government's confusion regarding the amendment of the constitution, silence on the corruption scandal, and the uncertainty of the convention. Central member Sarita Prasain said that there was more criticism on the work of the ministers. According to him, there is an objection that ministers give priority to powerful leaders and their constituencies especially when allocating the budget. "If there is a complaint that even their own ministers have not given the budget, let's leave the matter of the UML ministers," she said. He says that if the Congress cannot lead the movement on these issues, the 2084 election will be heavy for the party. "Our credibility has been reduced because the party is helpless and a silent spectator in such scandals, the government and people's movement against this should be under the leadership and coordination of the Congress," KC said.
Even after one year of the equation between Congress and UML, most of the leaders have drawn the attention of Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba saying that the amendment of the constitution is limited only to speeches and slogans. The issue of constitutional amendment established the justification for the formation of two major parties, but for a year, it has been limited to occasional speeches, slogans and discussions. This is a betrayal of the promise made to the people and a failure of the coalition government,” KC said.
