Kathmandu, December 27

The establishment faction of the Nepali Congress today decided to extend the tenure of the current leadership by one year. The tenure of Sher Bahadur Deuba’s leadership was to end on March 3.

The rival faction led by senior NC leader Ramchandra Paudel, which had boycotted today’s central working committee meeting, refused to accept the party’s decision. Paudel told THT that Deuba had put the party into crisis by unfairly extending his tenure. “We’ll not accept this decision. We are going to organise a press conference tomorrow to tell the public what we think about today’s decision.”

He said he was surprised by the party’s decision as party leadership had assured him that everything would be on the basis of consensus.

NC issued a press release stating that the decision to extend the tenure of the current leadership was taken as preparation for the next national convention would take time.   The party also termed the situation extra-ordinary to justify the extension of the tenure of current leadership. The party added that preparation for the next national convention should be done as per the new structure of the party.

The party also decided to endorse the Tarun Dal’s decision to extend the tenure of the office bearers for six months. The Tarun Dal had recently taken a decision to extend its tenure for six months. Deuba will issue directives to Tarun Dal to hold its convention within six months.

The CWC also decided to increase the number of party’s departments to 47 which was opposed by the Paudel faction. The NC stated that office bearers of the party’s departments would be appointed soon.