The campaign to renew memberships that have already been renewed has sparked a power struggle between the establishment and other parties in the Congress. The active membership renewal campaign has been going on since 1 Baisakh for the 15th Central General Convention to be held in Kathmandu from 9-14 Asoj.

The deadline for renewal by mid-Baisakh has been extended to 21 Jestha due to internal disputes. The dispute, which was limited to the center, has now reached the district, region and ward levels.

Regarding this, President Gagan Thapa has also warned that non-cooperative office bearers will be removed from their responsibilities. Thapa, who is in Biratnagar, told local journalists on Saturday morning that anyone involved in non-cooperation will be removed from their responsibilities.

Other party leader Prakash Sharan Mahat says, 'To ensure the fairness of the general convention, the renewal should be stopped and the old renewal should be recognized.' The ward working committee chairman has the authority to renew the party's active membership. Thapa has warned that he will be removed from his position after ward chairmen in the other party camp failed to cooperate in the renewal.

The party's central working committee has given the leadership of the membership renewal campaign to General Secretary Pradeep Poudel. According to him, there can be 5-6 ward chairmen in each district.

'In the case of chairmen who have died, joined other parties and gone abroad, the responsibility has already been given to someone else, and in the case of those who have not cooperated, the responsibility will now be given to someone else,' Poudel said.

Active members are the first voters of the general convention. Since the decision on who will be the central chairperson is determined from the renewal and distribution of active membership, the main power struggle between the establishment and other parties is focused on this.

Other party leader Prakash Sharan Mahat said that for the fairness of the general convention, the renewal of active membership should be stopped and the previous renewal should be continued.

Both groups led by other party leaders Purna Bahadur Khadka and Shekhar Koirala have been opposing the campaign launched by the establishment party to renew membership.

They have sought the continuation of the membership that was renewed when Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma were general secretaries before the 21 Falgun elections. At that time, more than 500,000 members came into the renewal process. There were 866,000 active members in the 14th general convention. General Secretary Poudel said that about 150,000 people renewed their memberships within a month.

There are signs that the number of memberships will drop sharply this time due to disputes within the party.

Other party leaders have been accusing President Thapa of trying to monopolize the party by saying that the membership that has already been renewed should be renewed again.

The group led by Khadka and Koirala is outside the general convention process. Other groups that have been separated since the special general convention have been demanding a self-respecting agreement for unity.

Leader Mahat said that the minimum demands for unity are to stop the renewal of active membership, to form a mechanism including leaders of both parties to conduct the general convention, and to have important committees like elections, active investigation and discipline with the agreement of both parties.

‘We did not say this or that post, we did not say that 60 and 40 are required, we have said that this should be the minimum to ensure that the 15th General Conference is held with fairness,’ Mahat said, ‘If they do not agree with the need to hold the General Conference by forming a common mechanism, then even if I do not support splitting the party, other friends should not remain inactive.’

He said that the fairness of the General Conference has been raised by starting the renewal period despite the fact that if the telephone numbers of the renewed members are missing, they can be requested separately.

However, Thapa said that this work was done for the purpose of keeping the active membership digital. ‘There should be no confusion in this, if anyone has any confusion, we are ready to clear it,’ Thapa said, ‘Does it mean that the details of the party membership cannot be kept in the central office?’

Poudel said that there is no matter of suspicion as the renewal is being done through the old party mechanism.

‘The old ward president should do the renewal. It is not intended to do it by making a new president. This information is to say that we have kept as much information as possible about all the members and take the party to digital transformation,’ Poudel added, ‘Now 4,000 ward presidents have joined this process. It remains to be determined whether others are unknowingly or are being politically uncooperative.’