Purna Bahadur Khadka and Shekhar Koirala have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction over the nomination of 19 people as members of the Central Working Committee by Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa. They have said that the nomination made without consulting them has hurt the greater unity of the party.

Former acting president Khadka and leader Koirala had discussions with leaders of their respective factions on Tuesday morning. They have concluded that the nomination of a few people alone will not resolve the structural dispute within the Congress. The nominated leaders, on the other hand, have called it a positive step towards party unity.

They say that President Thapa's efforts to include groups outside the special general convention should not be taken negatively. Former president Sher Bahadur Deuba's faction leader Angelu Sherpa said that the remaining political issues should be resolved in the 15th general convention since the moral and legal battle is over. Sherpa was nominated as a central member on Monday. 

Stating that President Thapa's initiative to unite leaders outside the special general convention was positive, Sherpa said that unity should now be sought at the general convention. 'There is no morality in saying that leadership cannot be accepted after taking a ticket from President Thapa's signature and going into the election contest. After the court recognized the special general convention on 4 Baisakh, the legal issue has also been resolved. What remains now is only a political issue,' he said, 'The only way to take it is to the general convention.'

Leader Dilendra Prasad Badu, nominated by Shekhar Koirala's side, also said that the nomination was a positive step for party unity. 'I am aware that the nomination was made after meeting and talking to everyone. This effort is a positive initiative in favor of party unity,' he said, who is in Darchula. 'Shekharji called his friends this morning and discussed it. I have also told him the same thing over the telephone.'

Leaders Khadka and Koirala, however, said that they had no consultation regarding the nomination. ‘The nomination of 19 people to the Nepali Congress Central Committee on 28 Baisakh has hurt the party’s greater unity,’ Koirala wrote on social media. 

Koirala also expressed dissatisfaction with the Central Working Committee’s decision to update active memberships that had already been renewed. ‘The party’s 15th General Convention (as a unity convention) should be held on the basis of the active memberships renewed and newly distributed after the 14th General Convention,’ he said. ‘This should be the main basis of Congress unity.’ Immediately after Koirala, Khadka also made similar statements. Khadka said that Monday’s nominations hurt the party’s objective of achieving broad and complete unity. 

Khadka said that there should be complete unity within the party at a time when the pillars and values ​​of constitutionalism and democracy are being attacked in the name of ‘populism.’ ‘Without unity, we cannot play an effective, interventionist and meaningful role in national politics. Therefore, the responsibility for the broad and complete unification of the party lies primarily in the hands of Gaganji and secondly in the hands of Bishwa Prakash (Sharma) ji.' 

Deuba faction leader Min Bahadur Bishwakarma said that there should be a collective effort for unity rather than selecting and nominating individuals. 'Instead of making a collective effort, the message of overall party unity does not go through by connecting individuals,' he said. 'It would be better to coordinate with the leadership and try to achieve overall party unity rather than nominating individuals. This is our suggestion to the chairman.' 

Even though Khadka and Koirala have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the nomination, there is a large group within those groups who are flexible for unity. Ramhari Khatiwada, a central member close to Khadka, says that the nominations made in the first phase are positive and have strengthened party unity. Khatiwada, who is an elected member of the Deuba-led Central Working Committee, has not been nominated this time. ‘The President’s nominations to connect those who are outside the special general convention are positive in themselves,’ he said, ‘We should gradually connect others to this. The general convention should be made a unity general convention.’ 

There are separate groups of Khadka and Koirala’s factions on the other side of the establishment. Khadka has taken over the leadership of former President Deuba’s faction. Leaders close to Deuba say that even though he is outside the country, he is not far from the internal activities of the party. 

A leader said that Khadka and Koirala may have expressed dissatisfaction because President Thapa himself made the nominations after talking to them. ‘The current nominations were not made by asking for names from the leadership of the faction like in the past,’ he said. 

Leaders say that former second-level office bearers who are on the side of former President Deuba, especially, are looking at the current dispute in terms of their future. "After Gagan Thapa took over the leadership, it has been difficult to accept them. Their main concern is whether they will have a respectable status," said a party official. "Most of the leaders below that are trying to get along." When President Thapa nominated 19 people from the general convention delegates, 11 were from the Deuba side, 7 from the Shekhar Koirala side, and 1 from the Shashank Koirala side.

Mahendra Yadav, Umesh Shrestha, Ramesh Rijal, Ajay Kumar Chaurasia, Laxmi Pariyar, Angelu Sherpa, Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Rajiv Dhungana, Sushila Mishra Bhatta, Nagina Yadav, and Jeevan Rana have been nominated from the Deuba side. Among them, Mahendra Yadav was previously the joint general secretary and Umesh Shrestha was the treasurer.

From Shekhar Koirala's side, Jeevan Pariyar, Sujata Koirala, Dilendra Prasad Badu, Chandrakant Bhandari, Rajiv Koirala, Govinda Raj Pokharel and Dinesh Koirala have been nominated. Jeevan Pariyar is the previous joint general secretary. From Shashank Koirala's side, only Sita Thapaliya 'Urmila' has been nominated.

After the Supreme Court ruled that the Thapa-led Central Working Committee would be the official one, leader Shekhar Koirala had been standing in favor of stopping parallel activities within the party and moving towards unity. After Monday's nomination, he is irritated. President Thapa had also wanted to nominate Koirala this time. Koirala was not nominated after he said that he would not come until there is unity with everyone. Deuba's leaders, however, have not stopped parallel activities. This group held a Koshi province-level meeting in Biratnagar on Tuesday, and a Bagmati province-level meeting is being held on Wednesday. The gatherings are seen as preparations for the parallel 15th General Convention.