Kathmandu, April 3

After efforts to forge consensus between two factions of the Nepali Congress regarding NC’s Parliamentary Party leader failed, party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and leader Ramchandra Paudel have decided to contest for the PP leader.

The two had also contested for party president’s post in the polls held on March 6 and 7, with Deuba defeating Paudel. The PP election scheduled for Wednesday will elect the PP leader, who will become the party’s official prime ministerial candidate.

Leaders from Paudel faction had urged Deuba to support Paudel as PP leader, reasoning that that would unite the party in the real sense. “Deuba has been saying that he would unite the party. So, we formally proposed that he should support Paudel as PP leader. Paudel himself met Deuba for the same. As Deuba did not react to our proposal, we have decided to field Paudel as PP leader. We, however, still wish Deuba would accept our proposal by the time of filing the nomination on Tuesday,” said Dilendra Prasad Badu.

Bimalendra Nidhi, who is close to Deuba, however, said the relevance of offering Paudel PP leadership had ended after Paudel refused to support Deuba as party president. “Deuba and I had offered Paudel PP leader’s post in return for supporting Deuba as party president. He, however, had refused to do so. There is no relevance of supporting Paudel as PP leader now,” Nidhi said.

After Deuba decided to contest for the PP leadership, leaders from Paudel’s side, including general secretary of the party Shashanka Koirala, treasurer Sita Devi Yadav, Prakash Man Singh, Shekhar Koirala, Mahesh Acharya and Badu held a meeting at Paudel’s contact office in Anamnagar this morning and decided to field Paudel for PP leader.

Meanwhile, senior-most parliament member of the party KB Gurung will lead tomorrow’s PP meeting called at Lhotse hall of international convention centre, according to Nidhi. “As post of the PP leader is lying vacant, Gurung will chair tomorrow’s meeting in the capacity of senior most parliament member of the party. Deuba had telephoned Gurung today, requesting him to chair the meeting and Gurung accepted the offer. Gurung will also propose at the meeting to let chief whip or whip table the proposal to amend the PP statute.

The party’s Central Working Committee meeting to be convened at the same venue will endorse the statute amended by the PP meeting.