The Nepali Congress has formally started the party's 15th general convention process. With the aim of making the organization strong, empowered and effective along with the preparations for the convention, the party is going to launch a 'month-long Jara Abhiyan'. Central representatives have been deployed in all 77 districts for the campaign.

Under the 'Jara Abhiyan', which will be launched from April 1, 2083, for one month, active membership updates, new membership distribution, organizational activities and citizen dialogue programs will be conducted.

According to General Secretary Pradeep Poudel, the main objective of the campaign is to make the party's active membership system systematic and scientific. Along with this, organizational strengthening will also be linked to the campaign.

The special general convention held at Bhrikutimandap in Kathmandu from December 1 to 30 had passed the policy of selecting candidates for local, provincial and federal parliaments through primary elections.

To implement the same decision, a campaign to re-update the entire membership by revealing the identity will be conducted throughout April. The Central Working Committee is going to cancel the previous membership renewal process and update it through a new system.

What is the Jara Abhiyan?

According to the work schedule made public by the Congress, the work of taking active membership to the ward level and appointing representatives has been done from 21 Chaitra to mid-April. Accordingly, General Secretary Poudel said that representatives from 77 districts were appointed on Saturday and a guideline was prepared determining their scope of work. The process of representatives going to the districts has already begun.

According to him, the active membership campaign will be conducted from 1 Baisakh to mid-April. The central representatives deployed in the districts have been trained on the technical process of membership renewal. Additional technical teams will also be mobilized from the center and local levels.

The Congress has named this campaign, which will be conducted for a month, ‘Jara Abhiyan’. According to Poudel, it means a campaign to take the party back to the grassroots level.

‘Roots are the base of a tree.’ Now we have to go to the roots and apply water and fertilizer. The essence of this is to reach from the center and the headquarters to the villages and villages,' he said, 'to update the membership, you have to go to the place where you got the membership, otherwise it will not be updated.'

The Congress currently has 863,000 active members. Of these, the phone numbers of about 100,000 members are not in the records, and many of the numbers are wrong or duplicated. Now, during the update, you have to go to the relevant place and take a photo and the mobile number has been made mandatory.

According to this arrangement, former President Sher Bahadur Deuba will have to go to Dadeldhura to update his membership. Leader Shekhar Koirala has been arranged to complete the process in Morang and President Gagan Kumar Thapa in his constituency Kathmandu.

'OTP' has been arranged in the update process like the banking system. The digital ID of the membership will be received on the mobile only after OTP verification. Those who wish can also get a physical card from the central office.

The Congress has stated that it is going to develop a modern membership system targeting the primary elections to be held for the selection of candidates in the upcoming elections.

‘So far, the membership system has become individual-centric, and a structure that stands in favor of the organization has not been formed,’ Poudel said, ‘Many members have not even publicly revealed their identity as Congress members. That is why we have tried to create an active membership system with public identification.’

According to him, out of the 850,000 members, even the photos of about 50,000 are not in the records. Now, since the membership will be updated with digital records, the party believes that the possibility of disputes in the distribution and renewal of membership will be reduced.

According to the new system, those who do not have a membership ID will not be able to participate in the general convention. ‘Everyone who wants to update has the opportunity. However, if the person himself is not active, the membership will automatically become inactive,' said Poudel, 'even if the number of members decreases, an active and identifiable membership is needed.'

New memberships will also be distributed during the campaign period

New memberships will also be distributed along with the update of old memberships during the campaign period. New memberships will be distributed by the ward and regional working committees, while the responsibility of updating old memberships has been given to the district. Representatives deployed from the center will facilitate.