Kathmandu, October 10

The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal’s decision to retain the presidium in the party’s new statute has angered party cadres who think the provision will allow members of the presidium to pursue their own vested political interests.

The RJP-N recently submitted its statute to the Election Commission. A party source said that the six-members presidium had retained the presidium’s right against the wishes of the party rank and file and a decision of the political committee.

“Although the leaders say they will remove the presidium during the party’s general convention, I doubt their intention. If they were committed to remove provisions related to presidium, they should have clearly stated this in the statute, but they

have not done so,” the source added. He said the party’s presidium did not discuss the contents of the statute in any other bodies of the party.

He said the RJP-N, which was in the forefront of the movement for federalism, had not formed a provincial committee yet.

RJP-N leaders Rajendra Mahato and Rajkishor Yadav, however, told THT the party would remove the presidium and go for collective leadership after the general convention. Mahato said not doing away with the presidium after the general convention would be against the wishes of party cadres.

A top RJP-N leader told THT that the cadres wanted to do away with the presidium because of the perception that the presidium had made the party a hostage of indecision.

“Cadres also think the presidium which requires the consent of all six members goes against democratic norms,” he said, and added that the cadres blamed the leadership of using the presidium to seek their share of political opportunities.