A meeting held at President Sher Bahadur Deuba's residence in Maharajgunj on Friday to resolve the ongoing dispute over whether to hold the Congress general convention before or after the elections also failed to provide any solution.

The middle-of-the-road proposal to be brought for consensus did not move forward after former vice-president of the establishment party Bimalendra Nidhi and former general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula, who led the idea that both regular and special general elections should not be held before the elections, did not move forward.

Acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka and central member Ramesh Lekhak had put forward a middle-of-the-road proposal to bring the agenda by mid-Poush in consultation with president Deuba. Such a proposal was discussed on the condition that the application for a special general convention be withdrawn. However, the general secretaries and the leaders in favor of the special general convention have not accepted the condition that the application for a special general convention be withdrawn.

Leaders in favor of the special general convention had made public their opinion that the application demanding a special general convention would not be withdrawn at a press conference on Thursday. A petition for a special general convention has been registered on Asoj 29 with the signatures of 54 percent of the delegates.

General Secretaries Thapa and Sharma have suggested the President to call a special general convention, saying that the chances of a regular general convention are now weak. They said that even though there is a facility to hold a regular general convention with a majority of the Central Working Committee, a special general convention cannot be stopped. They argued that calling a special general convention by the President would also stop the propaganda that the party will split. They have urged the President to take the initiative in this as the message that only the President has been removed while electing all the office bearers and members of the Central Working Committee in the special general convention will not be conveyed.

However, Sitaula and Nidhi have been maintaining that any special and regular convention is not possible before the elections and they maintained the same stance in the meeting called today. They said that the election program and the process of candidate recommendation should be started. Former General Secretary Sitaula said that while all parties are focused on the elections, the issue of internal competition should be put on hold and the election should be held. Before the meeting, Nidhi and Sitaula had reached Deuba's residence after holding a meeting of establishment-oriented office bearers and central members.

'When the party has already decided to go for the elections, it is not time to raise the issue of internal competition. The party should come up with an election program. A proportional list should be prepared. We should work together for that. A parliamentary board should be formed and the process of selecting candidates should be taken forward,' Sitaula told Kantipur, 'We should not waste a long time on this dispute.'

The general secretaries are of the same opinion. Acting President Khadka, Lekhak and another leader Shekhar Koirala are active in finding a middle-ground solution. However, the dispute is being prolonged due to the stance of the majority members on the establishment side led by Sitaula and Nidhi. According to Sitaula, President Deuba has not expressed any opinion on this dispute. 'He has said that you should go together.' But he has not given his opinion,' he said. President Deuba, acting president Khadka, general secretaries Thapa and Sharma, leaders Shekhar Koirala, Balkrishna Khand and Lekhak were present in today's meeting.