Himalayan News Service

Biratnagar, January 23:

Central committee member of the Nepali Congress (NC), Shailaja Acharya, announced today that she would not be contesting the election for the post of party president in the upcoming party convention.

Talking to mediapersons in Biratnagar, she clarified that she made the decision as there was a chance of current party chief Girija Prasad Koirala standing for the post. She added there were certain issues, including domestic ones, for her backing down. “I cannot compete with an octogenarian who is also my relative,” she said. Acharya had expressed an interest to stand for NC president in Biratnagar a few weeks ago.

However, she sealed the discussion today by saying that this was her “final decision”.

Given the current situation, she ruled out any possibility of an election. “If the election is held in this situation, there will be bloodbath”, Acharya warned.

She said she believed the election was not a good idea as there was every chance of a foreign intervention. Saying that any struggle was doomed unless the corrupt faces were sidelined from the agitating four parties, Acharya stressed on the need of perseverance among the agitators. Extending support to the government decision to hike the price of petroleum products, Acharya called the anti-price hike protests “meaningless”. “The hike was a good move to save the deteriorating economy as the earlier price was less than that in India,” she said.

Acharya also said the NC was not opposing constitutional monarchy and that “all leaders should understand that constitutional monarchy is the symbol of our national unity”.