Kathmandu, July 23

Nepali Congress leaders told the party’s Central Working Committee meeting today that the party should distribute tickets to its election candidates through district committees and not through its central office.

NC lawmaker Kiran Yadav said a majority of leaders who spoke in the CWC meeting said that since the central office could not know the winning prospects of the party candidates, the onus of selecting candidates should rest with district committees.

Yadav told the meeting that NC, being the oldest and largest political force of the country, should make its stance clear on national issues and should not be seen as toeing other parties’ line. She some other speakers told the meeting that the NC poll performance was poor because of the party’s failure to make its stance clear on national issues.

Yadav said speakers also told the meeting that although the NC sincerely wanted to pass the constitution amendment bill, the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal doubted the party’s sincerity and therefore the party should try to put the constitution amendment bill to vote.

“Once we put the bill to vote, public would know who is in favour of the bill and who is not,” she said and added that the issues raised by the RJP-N was also the issues of the NC. “But there are some issues that the RJP-N wants to prolong to win votes,” Yadav said.

Twenty NC leaders, including Narayan Khadka, Minendra Rijal, Nabindra Raj Joshi, and Gagan Kumar Thapa, took part in the discussion today.