The Nepali Congress is about to move its lower-level conventions for the second time, and the party’s general secretary says the reasons are floods and unity talks. Pradeep Paudel said on Sunday that the ward-level conventions, due to begin on Wednesday, would be rescheduled. The 15th general convention stays where it is, on October 2 to 5, he said. The Central Working Committee was meeting that day and was expected to settle the new dates, the Kathmandu Post reported.
Behind the delay is a push by party president Gagan Thapa to hold what he calls a unity convention. Thapa has been talking to former president Sher Bahadur Deuba, former acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka and leader Shekhar Koirala, mostly through intermediaries. Koirala and Khadka have seemed receptive. Deuba and his allies have not budged from their position that the convention should wait until the court cases over the party’s leadership are resolved.
The court track
Deuba and Khadka had each asked the Supreme Court to review its April 17 ruling, which recognised the special general convention and the central working committee elected under Thapa. On August 6 the court let those review petitions go ahead. It then declined to issue an interim order in a separate petition that sought to stop the convention schedule, so the establishment side could carry on with its preparations.
Koirala’s five points
Thapa has lately been more flexible. The establishment side is now ready to accept a five-point proposal that Koirala made about three months ago and that it had turned down at the time.
The proposal runs as follows. First, updating active party membership would not be compulsory for the 15th convention; the establishment side had insisted it should be. Second, the convention would rest on membership renewals completed after the 14th general convention, with members renewed by December 25, 2025 recognised. Third, office bearers and central working committee members from the earlier Deuba-led committee who are now outside the party’s central body would be brought into the committee formed after the special general convention. Fourth, the central working performance committee would be formed with most of its members nominated by the party president. Fifth, the election committee, active membership screening committee, disciplinary committee and statute amendment committee would be formed by consensus among the factions.
The establishment side had already shown some give on the last two points. That leaves membership renewal and the merging of the two central committees as the main sticking points.
“If all sides are ready to come on board by accepting the five points put forward by Shekhar Koirala, the establishment side is positive about it,” Paudel said. “We can move ahead by accepting them.”
