Kathmandu, November 27

Nepal Students Union, the student wing of the Nepali Congress, today announced the schedule for its 12th General Convention — from January 12 to 14 — amid serious reservations from a group of student leaders backed by an NC faction led by senior leader Ramchandra Paudel.

Factional politics in the mother party has spilled into the student wing, with student leaders divided into three groups — those backed by the NC establishment faction led by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and rival camps led by senior leader Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula.

However, student leaders backed by Deuba and Sitaula camps seemed to have forged ‘some sort of alliance’, with the two groups on the same page on the NSU general convention date.

But students backed by the Paudel camp have strongly opposed the ‘unilateral’ announcement of the general convention schedule ‘without proper consultation’.

Dipak Bhattarai, an NSU leader representing the group backed by the Paudel camp, said the ‘surprising’ announcement was made without following due process and without convening the NSU’s central working committee meeting. “This kind of practice will further weaken the student wing,” he said.

However, the groups backed by the Sitaula and Deuba camps claimed that the decision was taken by the NSU CWC that convened today. “The decision was taken unanimously by the NSU CWC meeting and there is no dispute whatsoever,” said NSU Vice-president Dilliram Subedi, who represents the student group backed by Sitaula. The group backed by the Paudel camp has expressed doubts about holding general convention on the stipulated date given the short preparation time.

But NSU President Nain Singh Mahar said they did not have any alternative but to hold the general convention on the set date, given that they had only two months to hold the gathering as per the amended statute endorsed recently by the NC CWC.

The NC had on November 18 extended the tenure of the NSU CWC by two months, amending the student wing’s statute. The CWC’s two-year tenure and a three-month extension as per the previous statute’s provision had expired on November 19.

The party’s decision to extend the NSU CWC’s tenure by two months was strongly opposed by Paudel and Sitaula camps. While the Sitaula camp had sought a six-month extension, the Paudel camp was for forming an ad-hoc committee led by Manoj Mani Acharya, who was Mahar’s rival in the 11th general convention.

12th GC Schedule

DEADLINE                         ACTIVITIES

December 8..................................Conventions in secondary and higher secondary schools, CTEVT, and colleges.

December 11................................Conventions in municipalities and rural municipalities.

December 23................................Conventions in colleges and universities based in Kathmandu Valley.

December 29................................Conventions in all 77 districts.

January 4........................................Conventions in provinces.

January 12-14..............................12th General Convention of the NSU