Kathmandu, March 17

Although the establishment and rival factions of the Nepali Congress have adopted some flexibility on formation of the party’s discipline and election committees, the warring factions have yet to reach a consensus to break the present stalemate.

After rival factions led by Senior NC Leader Ramchandra Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula threatened to boycott the party’s Central Working Committee meetings, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba today called a meeting of the party’s incumbent and former officer bearers at his residence in Budhanilakantha to iron out a solution.

However, the meeting ended inconclusively after the factions stuck to their guns. While the establishment faction led by Deuba is for formation of the committees on the basis of factional division of membership of the committees, the rival factions have been saying that such important committees should be formed on the basis of a broad-based consensus in such a way that they represent the aspirations of all.

If the committees are formed on the basis of factional division of membership, the establishment faction will have clear majority in both the panels, and rival factions fear possible ‘unilateral’ decisions by the committees, especially the discipline committee. The rival factions also raised the issue of the party’s recent decision to endorse the party statute through majority votes against the mandate of the meeting of the Maha Samiti, the party’s lawmaking body.

NC CWC Member Arjun Narsingh KC, who represents the Paudel faction, said they would again meet tomorrow before the CWC meeting to resolve the dispute. He said if a conclusion was not reached in the meeting they would boycott the CWC meeting tomorrow. The CWC meeting’s major agenda is formation of the committees.

“We expect consensus to be reached by maintaining the honour of the president and respecting the aspirations of party leaders,” he said.

A leader close to Deuba also said a conclusion could be reached tomorrow.

The leader said both sides agreed in principle in today’s meeting that consensus was the way forward. “The dispute has somewhat minimised, but is not yet settled,” the leader said.