After suffering an unexpected defeat in the elections, Congress President Gagan Thapa has resigned from his post, taking moral responsibility. President Thapa submitted his resignation to Vice President Bishwaprakash Sharma as soon as the date of the Central Working Committee meeting was fixed. However, the party has not made his resignation public.

‘The resignation of the President will be formally discussed in the Central Working Committee meeting called for 6 Chaitra. The right and decision to resign belongs to the President, he has given it,’ a party official said while confirming Thapa’s resignation, ‘But the issue of whether to accept it or not is the prerogative of the Central Working Committee meeting.’

The Congress special general convention held at Bhrikutimandap from 10 to 12 December had elected a new Central Working Committee under the leadership of Thapa. The writ filed by the then President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka regarding its legality is still pending in the Supreme Court. But the leaders who disagreed with the organization of the special general convention contested the election under the signature of the newly elected President Thapa. 

Amid disagreements between the then President Deuba and his group, Thapa and Sharma, who were then general secretaries, had called a special general convention based on the signatures of 54 percent of the general convention delegates. The party statute has a mandatory provision that a special general convention must be called within three months if 40 percent of the general convention delegates request it with signatures.

After the Deuba group tried to avoid the mandatory provision of the statute by pointing to the February 21 election, Thapa and Sharma held the special general convention in the style of a 'rebellion' within the party.  The special general convention dissolved the Deuba-led Central Working Committee and elected a new 134-member Central Working Committee under Thapa's leadership.

The Election Commission had decided on February 4 to give legitimacy to the special general convention and update the Thapa-led Central Working Committee. After that, Deuba and Khadka went to the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the commission. President Thapa expected good results in the election by removing the unpopularity of the then Congress leadership.

The special general convention had not only changed the old leadership of the party but also taken transformative decisions in national politics and party policy. After the Congress suffered a heavy defeat in the election, Thapa resigned and immediately wanted to lead the party towards a regular general convention. The Congress, which has made the slogan 'Abki Bar, Saya Par', is limited to 38 seats, including 18 in direct elections and 20 in proportional elections. President Thapa himself was defeated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh candidate Amresh Kumar Singh by a large margin in Sarlahi-4. Singh won with 35,688 votes, while Thapa got only 22,831 votes.

Thapa, who was stressed by the party and himself due to the losses suffered in the election, had been preparing to submit his resignation for a few days. He had already made up his mind to resign when the results for the proportional representation system were not forthcoming. Thapa informed about his resignation in a meeting with Vice President Sharma on February 25. Since then, leaders within the party have been expressing both opinions on whether Thapa should resign or not. 

Despite all-out pressure from the Central Working Committee and outside, after President Thapa refused, Sharma has accepted the resignation and is preparing to make it a topic for discussion in the Central Working Committee meeting. Congress spokesperson Devraj Chalise said that the meeting, which is being held for the first time after the election, will review the election results, leadership responsibilities, and organizational shortcomings. Earlier, a meeting of the Central Working Committee was held under the chairmanship of Thapa to select the list of MPs to be elected through the proportional representation system.

It did not enter into any other issue except the decision to send the list of MPs elected for the 20 seats won by the party through the proportional representation system to the Election Commission.  According to Chalise, Vice President Sharma, in his capacity as the coordinator of the election mobilization committee, will present a review report of the election in the meeting.

‘The image of the Congress, which changed from the special general convention, has become limited to the ranks of the workers, it has not reached the people, there may be other reasons for this defeat,’ Spokesperson Chalise told Kantipur, ‘Reports are coming in from district to district regarding this, we will have a detailed discussion on finding the reasons for the party’s defeat and taking the party on a further strengthening campaign, and there will also be a discussion on the regular general convention.’ Even if the special general convention is held in the Congress in the meantime, it does not count as the regular convention of the party. Since the 14th general convention was held in Mangsir 2078, the 15th general convention should have been held by Mangsir 2082.

Since it was not regular within that time, the statute cannot extend the period by one year and the constitution by an additional six months to more than five and a half years.  The Deuba-led central working committee, which had been preparing for the special general convention before calling it, has already passed the schedule for the 15th general convention between 27-31 Baisakh. Even if it is not completed by Baisakh, Thapa and Vice President Sharma are ready to hold a regular general convention by Jestha. The Deuba group has zero representation in the central working committee elected by the special general convention.