Paudel, Koirala ask Deuba to play fair

Kathmandu, July 30

Senior leader of Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Paudel and party General Secretary Shashank Koirala today wrote a joint letter to the party President Sher Bahadur Deuba, saying they had lost confidence that the upcoming 14th National Convention of the party would be held in a free, fair and impartial manner.

The leaders organised a press conference after submitting their memorandum to the president at the party office. They said it was important for the party to distribute active membership in a transparent manner and carry out its activities as per the party statute and rules.

They said all party bodies, including President Deuba had become caretaker office bearers as the tenure of the current leadership and all party bodies had already ended in mid-March. Paudel and Koirala also opposed formation of some party departments arguing that as per the party statute, Deuba was supposed to form all departments of the party within six months, but he has been forming the departments even after the end of the tenure of the central leadership. Recently, Deuba had nominated office bearers in some party bodies and had also formed the Senior Politicians’ Assembly.

Paudel and Koirala accused Deuba of forming party departments to influence the result of the upcoming national convention in his favour. They reminded Deuba of the dissolution of the party departments by former president Sushil Koirala after Deuba opposed the formation of the departments in the third year of Koirala’s four year tenure. They wrote in their letter that formation of party departments, nomination of office bearers and creation of posts in party bodies at a time when the date for the next National Convention has already been fixed, was a violation of party statute.

They said the party had been distributing active membership to party cadres in some districts, but in other districts the party had not been distributing active membership to the deserving candidates. They also demanded that all NC diaspora organisations should hold their conventions before they could be eligible to be elected as National Convention representatives. They also demanded that all bodies of the party should hold their conventions without further delay.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 31, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.