President Sher Bahadur Deuba has started engaging in informal dialogue to resolve the dispute related to the Congress general convention. Deuba, who returned on Friday after undergoing treatment in Singapore, met separately with acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka and party spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat on Saturday. He is also preparing to meet with leaders of the establishment faction, including seven former office bearers, from Sunday.

Deuba had withdrawn from active politics on 10 October, the day the Central Working Committee meeting began, by giving the responsibility of Vice President Khadka as the acting president, but Deuba is active after the dispute related to the general convention could not be resolved even after a month. Khadka also held talks with the leaders of the establishment party and General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma at the Himalaya Hotel on Saturday. The dispute is where it is.

There is a dispute in the Congress whether to hold a regular or special general convention before or after the House of Representatives elections. Leaders close to him say that the acting president is trying to make a decision by consensus, not by majority. There is a warning from leaders that the party will split if a minority/majority vote is used for the decision.

Khadka has postponed the Central Working Committee meeting, which was called on Saturday, by two days to Monday to reach a consensus. The meeting had been postponed several times before. Saying that there is no justification for repeatedly postponing the meeting, General Secretary Thapa has urged to take a decision on Monday at any cost. 'We should not go before Monday now, whatever decision is to be made, it should be made on the same day,' says Thapa.

According to a leader from the establishment side, Deuba is in favor of bringing a regular general convention schedule within Poush. 'But the main challenge is how to convince the seven former office bearers,' said the leader. The seven former office bearers are in favor of not holding the general convention before the House of Representatives elections.

General Secretary Thapa is unhappy with the attempts to make Deuba active in the controversy related to the general convention. He believes that Deuba should remain the party's guardian and former president. Thapa comments that those who are trying to make Deuba active want his harm.

Rather than making a hasty decision and regretting it later, a suitable decision will be made by keeping the party united. This is a special request to understand this essence and be patient: Purna Bahadur Khadka, Acting President, Congress The Congress and its leadership are being criticized everywhere for being indecisive for a month. Questions have started to arise within the party about the decision-making ability of Acting President Khadka. After leaders and workers started asking questions, he responded by writing a ‘status’ on social media on Saturday morning. ‘I always respect and will continue to respect any comments made about me in public. These comments are my strength and guidance,’ he wrote in the ‘status’.

Khadka said that even though it may take some time to make a decision considering the adverse situation facing the country and the party, he said that a suitable decision will be made by keeping the party united rather than making a hasty decision and regretting it later. ‘There is a special request for everyone to unite and understand this essence and be patient,’ he wrote on social media.

General Secretary Thapa, addressing a Zoom meeting organized by the Congress-affiliated global network on Saturday morning, informed that a special general convention would be held as the regular general convention was not possible due to time pressure. ‘We are no longer at a point where we can hold a regular general convention. Time pressure has increased significantly. Now, the easier way is to hold a special general convention,’ he said.

Thapa says that the trust and confidence of the voters can be restored as the message that the Congress has changed will be conveyed through the special general convention. ‘We came as a new person, we came as a new party, after 062/63 we came to the elections as a new person, this time we have come as a new person again, so we can address the aspirations of the society,’ he says.

Thapa argues that no one has the facility to postpone the general convention as the situation before and after the Gen-G movement is not the same. ‘Before the Gen-G movement, the president wanted to hold the general convention only after becoming the prime minister, so we took it easy,’ he says, ‘now we don’t have such a facility. What does it mean to the citizens that we couldn’t do it? When the party doesn’t even care, it’s hard to understand the difficulty within us. We should complete the work of 6 months in a month and hold the general convention.’

Since the majority of the establishment members did not appear in favor of the regular general convention, Thapa has already proposed a special general convention in the meeting on Thursday. But the establishment side is planning to postpone the general convention on the strength of the majority. Although the regular general convention can be postponed by the majority of the Central Working Committee, it cannot be postponed because 54 percent of the representatives have signed a demand for a special general convention. The statute provides for a special general convention to be called within three months if a demand is made with the signatures of 40 percent of the general convention delegates. The petition demanding a special general convention was registered on 29 Asoj.

The establishment party, especially the seven former office bearers, are trying to make the statutory provisions of the statute inactive with the majority of the party's central working committee. 'There is a suspicion that the seven former office bearers are trying to make President Deuba active again by escalating such a dispute within the party,' said a central member.

Meanwhile, 25 central members submitted a collective letter to acting president Khadka on Friday, demanding a general convention before the elections. They believe that a general convention should be held to establish the party as a transformative force.

Since then, the establishment party has held a meeting at a party palace in Baneshwor on Saturday morning at the initiative of the seven former office bearers. The meeting, which lasted for more than five hours, decided to maintain its stance of not accepting the proposal of the general convention before the election under any circumstances. After that decision, the leaders of the establishment party attended the meeting called by Acting President Khadka at the Himalaya Hotel in Pulchowk. Vice President Dhanraj Gurung, General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma, Joint General Secretary Mahendra Yadav, former office bearers Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Bimalendra Nidhi, Ramesh Lekhak and other leaders were present.

Joint General Secretary Yadav informed that the morning meeting concluded that the election-related program should be brought from the upcoming Central Working Committee meeting. ‘Our common view is that we should enter into the work of forming a parliamentary board, preparing for the election and recommending names, and we will present ourselves accordingly in the meeting,’ he said. ‘Since holding a general convention on the eve of the election will cause great damage to the party, our main emphasis is that we should put aside the general convention-related programs and bring election programs first.’ Yadav argues that holding a general convention on the eve of the election will increase internal contradictions and multifaceted disputes in the party.