With the establishment party not ready to hold a regular general convention before the elections, General Secretary Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma have started moving towards a special general convention. They have organized a meeting on Tuesday to increase pressure for the special general convention.
Efforts by the Central Working Committee, comprising top leaders, to reach a consensus on the agenda of the General Convention by suspending the Central Working Committee meeting for four days have also failed.
As the possibility of reaching an agreement on the schedule of the regular general convention is fading, the two general secretaries of the Nepali Congress, Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma, are now starting to move towards a special general convention. An application for a special general convention has been registered at the party's central office, Sanepa, on Asoj 29 with the signatures of 54 percent of the delegates.
According to the statute, there is a legal provision that the special general convention should be held within three months of submitting the application, that is, by Poush 28. The two general secretaries had been taking a stand in favor of the regular schedule, with the central general convention being held in the second week of Poush. Leader Shekhar Koirala, who played a moderate role, was also in favor of the regular schedule proposed by the general secretary.
Koirala had coordinated to bring the regular general convention schedule in Poush itself, saying that polarization in the party would increase through the special general convention. Koirala also had a telephone conversation with President Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is undergoing treatment in Singapore, on Saturday to convince the establishment party.
Despite that, the possibility of the Central Working Committee, which has a majority of the establishment faction, coming up with a pre-election agenda has now become slim as seven former office bearers were not present at the end of Monday's central work performance meeting. General Secretary Bishwaprakash Sharma said that the Central Working Committee meeting on Tuesday will continue even if there is no agreement.
General Secretary Thapa will also be present at the meeting, he said. Thapa was stopped by the establishment faction when he tried to propose an agenda to the Central Working Committee. If Thapa brought an agenda without agreement, the establishment faction was prepared to present another agenda through Joint General Secretary Mahendra Ray Yadav, with the general convention to be held in Baisakh.
'Now, friends will be expressing their opinions in the Central Working Committee, and discussions will also be held for agreement,' Sharma said, 'If we do not agree to bring the regular general convention schedule from the current meeting, we should agree to a special general convention. What a person wants, what whose opinion it is, does not matter. At that time, the statute directs a special general convention.'
Leader Bal Bahadur KC said that the possibility of coming up with a work schedule before the election is slim because of the establishment faction, especially the seven former office bearers. 'The acting president is in the direction of agreeing to take it forward, but since he is also under pressure from the seven former office bearers, he does not seem to be in a position to take a decision beyond that,' KC said, 'That is why we left the two general secretaries and the seven former office bearers to agree. They could not agree. Even if they did not agree, we agreed that the meeting of the Central Working Committee cannot be stopped now.'
The establishment faction is also not in favor of a special general convention. By pointing to the election, the leaders of the majority establishment faction have tried to postpone the special general convention under the guise of the majority of the Central Working Committee. Central member Bimalendra Nidhi said that at this time, the Congress should give top priority to the Falgun elections rather than the issue of the party's internal general convention.
He argues that the entire attention of the Congress should be focused on the elections as the constitution, which is about to be out of the league, should be brought into the league through elections. ‘It takes time to hold a special general convention. The party and party workers cannot give time to the general convention in the run-up to the election. It should be kept in mind that the increasing bitterness over the general convention ahead of it could have adverse effects on the election,’ he said, ‘We all need to be aware of this.’
Meanwhile, the supporters of the special general convention have called a meeting at the Thapagaun Banquet on Tuesday itself. The gathering of the general convention representatives available in Kathmandu is going to put pressure on the central committee to take a decision in favor of the special general convention.
They have also made efforts to get leader Koirala to stand in favor of the special general convention. The signatory leaders reached Koirala’s liaison office in Bishalnagar in the morning and called for him to stand in favor of the special general convention.
A dozen leaders including young leaders Gururaj Ghimire, Devraj Chalise, Manojmani Acharya and others had reached Koirala to meet him. ‘The majority of the members who voted for you in the 14th general convention have signed a demand for a special general convention. Where are you in this campaign? What are you thinking about a special general convention? You have said a regular general convention. But if you cannot achieve this, we have said that you should support a special general convention,’ said Manojmani Acharya, one of the leaders who participated in the meeting. According to him, Koirala had informed that he would try for a regular general convention.
‘There have been two proposals within the party on whether to hold a regular general convention before or after the elections. My initiative is being taken towards taking one of them forward. But if the agenda for the regular general convention cannot be brought, a petition for a special general convention has been registered. I am not in favor of a special general convention. But somewhere it seems that the party is going in favor of a special general convention,' Acharya said, quoting Koirala.
Central member Pradeep Poudel said that if a decision is not made in favor of a regular general convention, a special general convention must be called, so it cannot be avoided.
'A special general convention is not an issue that was raised by force. Clause 2 of Article 17 of the statute has clearly provided that 40 percent of the general convention delegates can sign and demand a special general convention.
Spreading fear that the party will split when trying to use the legal provision is ignoring responsible friends of the party. The general convention representative himself is a person with a long continuity and loyalty to the party,' he said, 'It should be considered very natural to try to exercise the rights granted by the statutory system without being satisfied with the functioning of the central committee.'
Meanwhile, a separate meeting of the establishment-oriented central members has concluded that no kind of general convention should be held before the election. According to central member Nainsingh Mahar, most of the members who spoke were not in favor of holding a general convention before the election. The central members of the establishment-oriented party are preparing to meet the top leaders to present their suggestions on Tuesday.
'Preparations are being made to meet the leaders and inform them of the conclusions of the suggestions made in the meeting,' he said.
