Surkhet, August 23

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba today bemoaned that he was not given a conducive environment to work within his party.

Addressing Province-level Training Programme in Birendranagar of Surkhet district, Deuba held that tendency had grown in the party of not allowing the president to work. “An elected party head should be allowed to work freely and fairly. But, this is not happening in my case,” he said.

Hinting at a faction headed by NC senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel, Deuba  said a faction within the party was hindering him from working freely. He warned that he would not remain silent if the obstruction continued. “This is too much. If they don’t cooperate, I will work unilaterally,” he said. Deuba said that intra-party rift was behind NC’s poll debacle in the last general election. “Then CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre contested the polls as one party while the NC contested the polls as two different parties and lost,” he stated.

Venting ire at the government, Deuba accused the Oli-led government of working against  democracy. He recalled that his party had fought against Rana and Panchayat regimes. He stressed the need to be united to fight against communists in the country.

Deuba directed party rank and file to be ready to fight against the government if required. He charged the incumbent government of squandering budget and increasing tax in the country. At the programme, Nepali Congress Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi accused Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of trying to govern the country from Singapore.