Kathmandu, January 11:

Newly elected leaders of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) said today that the party’s 11th general convention had been able to put into practice the principle of inclusive democracy by allowing reservations for women, dalits, ethnic communities and for the people from many backward regions.

The convention had elected eight people to the central leadership under reservation slated for women, dalits, ethnic communities and backward region.

The NC(D) is the first political party to exercise the principle of inclusive democracy, said the newly elected central committee member Dip Kumar Upadhyaya at the Reporters’ Club today. Manmohan Bhattarai, also elected to the central leadership, said there was no alternative to a democratic republic.

“A democratic republic has been the common agenda of all the political parties who want to settle the Maoist insurgency peacefully,” he said.

Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, Bal Krishna Khand and NP Saud said the NC(D) was readying itself for a democratic Nepal without the institution of monarchy.

Other officials elected to the party’s central body under reservations also said the NC(D) had now turned into a national party with a broad representaion of the people.