Kathmandu, March 30

The two factions of Nepali Congress led by party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader Ramchandra Paudel today agreed to amend the statute of the party’s Parliamentary Party (PP) before election of PP leader slated for April 6.

The Congress has called a meeting of the PP at 8:00am on April 4 to amend the statute, according to NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi. A meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee to be held immediately after the PP amends the statute will endorse the amendment as per the party’s rule, he said.

Following a telephone conversation between Deuba and Paudel yesterday on the statute amendment issue, Deuba had sent three leaders — Bimalendra Nidhi, Purna Bahadur Khadka and Gopal Man Shrestha — from his side to Paudel’s residence in Boharatar to settle the dispute over whether to amend the statute before the PP leader’s election.

After a conversation lasting one-and-a-half hour, both the sides agreed to amend the party statute before the PP polls.

Deuba had taken the initiative to resolve the dispute after Paudel’s side expressed discontentment with Deuba’s plan to hold the PP polls without statute amendment.

“It is not true that we did not want to amend the statute. The PP leader polls were slated for April 6 due to the urgency that the Constitutional Council’s meeting had been postponed time and again in the absence of the PP leader of the main opposition,” Nidhi said.

The two sides agreed to amend the statute so that it could be adjusted with the provisions of the new constitution, Nidhi said.

The party’s preamble, representation from seven provisions instead of existing provision of representation of five development regions and increasing the number of clusters from five to eight for inclusion are the issues of statute amendment. After the amendment, the NC’s PP Working Committee will have a composition as per the spirit of the new constitution, according to Nidhi. The election for the PP’s working committee has been slated for April 8.

Paudel had requested Nidhi, Khadka and Shrestha to create environment for consensual environment in the party by letting Deuba lead the party and Paudel as the PP leader.

“As the party has a tradition wherein the same person leads both the party and the parliamentary party, Deuba expressed interest to contest the PP leadership. Friends have also suggested that he become the PP leader. I don’t see any chance of consensus if Paudel does not agree to support Deuba,” Nidhi said.

Paudel is also prepared to contest, according to his personal secretary Chiranjibi Adhikari.