The group led by former office bearers Bimalendra Nidhi and Krishna Prasad Sitaula has been in turmoil after the party president wanted to hold a general convention before the election to resolve disputes within the party.
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The impasse in the Congress meeting that has been going on for a month and a half seems to be resolved after President Sher Bahadur Deuba himself took the initiative to bring about a work schedule to hold the party's 15th general convention before the election. However, a group including former office bearers close to Deuba met separately on Sunday and put forward a proposal that can only be accepted if a work schedule is put in place to call off the special general convention.
General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma have maintained their stance that the special general convention process will automatically start if the regular general convention is not guaranteed. They have said that the signature of the special general convention will be invalid only after the regular general convention is completed.
Amidst dissatisfaction within his own group, Deuba had instructed acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka and central member Ramesh Lekhak to present the agenda for the Monday meeting to hold the general convention by mid-May. After the president wanted to hold the general convention before the election to resolve the dispute within the party, there has been a 'movement' in the group led by former office bearers Bimalendra Nidhi and Krishna Prasad Sitaula. The voices of most of the members who were not in favor of the general convention before the election have started changing after Deuba's intervention.
Leaving Nidhi and Sitaula, they have started to align with Deuba's views. Deuba called the disgruntled central members on Sunday and urged them to stand in favor of the agenda to be presented on Monday. This has put the group of seven former office bearers, who have been putting up a 'barrier' that the general convention should be held only after the elections, on the defensive.
General Secretary Thapa said that if all the leaders, including the president and acting president, work honestly, the general convention can be held within the month. 'It won't happen just by bringing the agenda. The main thing is whether everyone has the right intentions,' he said, 'In the meantime, the demand for a special general convention remains unchanged. It is alive. No one kills it. No one withdraws because they have withdrawn, and no one becomes inactive because they have become inactive. If a convention is held, it will automatically become inactive.'
The statute has made a provision that if a petition is filed demanding a special general convention with the signatures of 40 percent of the delegates, it must be called within three months. A petition for a special general convention was registered on 29 Asoj with the signatures of 54 percent of the delegates, including General Secretaries Thapa and Sharma. A special general convention will have to be called within three months, i.e., December 28. Therefore, Acting President Khadka is doing homework on the proposal to hold the regular general convention on December 27-30.
General Secretary Sharma said that the signatures of the general convention representatives, the separate roles of 29/30 central members within the establishment party, the efforts made by the Acting President to reach a consensus not to take decisions based on majority, the requests of the two general secretaries, the efforts of the leader of the other party, Shekhar Koirala, and finally the President's activism, are auspicious signs that the party will move forward unitedly.
'The announcement of the general convention date is not an achievement, but an honest effort to implement it is needed. If someone tries to make it fail, it does not seem to be in the President's interest,' he said, 'The President wants a respectable exit from the regular rather than the special general convention.' If anyone does not cooperate against this wish, it will mean that a special general convention will be forced.'
The gathering of Nidhi and Sitaula groups has indicated that they will not oppose the proposal for a pre-election agenda if the application for a special general convention is withdrawn. Joint General Secretary Mahendra Yadav says that if the application for a special general convention is not withdrawn and the agenda is brought within the Poush, they will not accept it. 'We cannot agree on the issue of not withdrawing the signature of the special general convention, but also bringing the agenda within the Poush, it will be opposed,' he said, 'We will decide at that time what kind of opposition there will be.'
After President Deuba called the disgruntled leaders individually and urged them to accept the agenda for the Poush general convention, Sitaula and Nidhi have started to become defensive. In the meeting called by President Deuba on Saturday, Sitaula and Nidhi had said that even if the pre-election agenda is brought, they and the majority of the members will not accept it. However, they became defensive after the opinion of the members of the establishment party started changing in the gathering. ‘What we told the president on Saturday is our opinion,’ Nidhi told Kantipur. ‘We have not been consulted about what kind of schedule is being proposed.’
Joint General Secretary Yadav said that they are in favor of the schedule of 27-29 Baisakh. Yadav himself had presented the schedule on behalf of the establishment party in the meeting a few days ago. ‘If the schedule is to be announced soon, a proposal should also be made to nullify the request for a special general convention,’ says Yadav. ‘If it is not, how can there be consensus? We are waiting for the proposal that the acting president will bring that will satisfy both sides.’
Meanwhile, a separate gathering of 29 central members of the establishment party has welcomed the president’s desire to hold a general convention before the elections. "We lobbied the president, acting president, and general secretaries to hold the general convention before the election, and we are happy that the schedule will be made accordingly," says central member Dila Sangraula. "The schedule should not be limited to the schedule. The general convention should be held. If the schedule is made, the pressure for the general convention from district to district will automatically increase."
