KATHMANDU, JANUARY 22

The Shekhar Koirala faction of the Nepali Congress held a discussion to review the party's role in recent weeks, including its decision to vote in favour of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in the trust vote. Speakers criticised party President Sher Bahadur Deuba and his leadership for not being able to retain the five-party alliance.

The Koirala faction leader Jagadish Narsingh KC said leaders close to Koirala had opposed the party's decision to forge electoral alliance with other parties, including Dahal's CPN-Maoist Centre, but the establishment faction threatened disciplinary action against them. 'We were not in favour of forging electoral alliance but as the establishment faction threatened to take action against us, we went on election campaign soliciting vote for the alliance. When the alliance secured near-majority seats and NC emerged as the largest party, Deuba's rigid stance led Dahal to break away from the alliance. Deuba should take responsibility for this,' KC added.

KC said the NC's decision to give the vote of confidence to Dahal landed it in a precarious situation as the party was not in a position to assert its claim for the principal opposition party. He said the Koirala faction should pressure the establishment faction to hold conventions of sister wings of the party within the next two months or else the establishment faction should allocate 40 per cent seats to their faction.

NC lawmaker in the House of Representatives Dig Bahadur Limbu said the NC should have let Dahal lead the alliance after polls. 'NC leaders showed lack of farsightedness during and after elections. We must tell the party's rank and file the same,' he said.

NC leaders Maina Karki, Kiran Yadav, Tejulal Chaudhary, Dhanraj Gurung, and Ram Krishna Yadav also spoke during the meeting.

The meeting will continue on Tuesday.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 23, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.