LALITPUR: The proposed collective leadership modality of the Nepali Congress (NC) will now be referred to Mahasamiti meeting scheduled to start tomorrow, after the Central Committee (CC) failed to decide the issue today.

The top three second-generation leaders — Sher Bahadur Deuba, Sushil Koirala and Ram Chandra Paudel — are divided over the issue. They sat separately in an attempt to resolve the issue, during today’s CC meeting held at NC headquarters in Sanepa, but failed to forge a consensus.

Consequently, the CC decided to carry three alternative proposals — electing all office bearers during the National General Convention (NGC), electing them by the CC and nominating them by party president — as the future model of forming the CC.

Sources say Deuba could not put his stance clearly on the proposed collective leadership system.

“The present presidential system is appropriate and essential, while the collective leadership system is also widely demanded. There has to be a balance between the two,” a CC member quoted Deuba as saying in the meeting.

Deuba’s opinion shows that he does not want to lose anyone’s support in the party, as a prospective candidate for the party president at the 12th NGC slated to start March 10, 2010 in Kathmandu, party sources said.

President Girija Prasad Koirala and acting president Sushil Koirala have backed the present model, while all other office bearers and a majority of CC members have strongly supported the collective leadership system.

As per the collective leadership system, all the office bearers are elected, while in the presidential model currently in practice, they are nominated by the president. The revised statute also purposes electing more than 80 per cent central members in the 87-member CC. Presently, the president nominates 50 per cent CC members.

The NC is all set to hold its Mahasamiti meeting at the Nepal Academy. Around 1,200 members from across the country will take part in the meeting, the second most powerful body of the party.

Today’s CC meeting, according to spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC, approved four agenda — the revised statute with alternate provisions, party’s proposed view on state restructuring, organisational report of general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi and a resolution on contemporary politics prepared by vice president Ram Chandra Paudel — for the Mahasamiti.

Leaders Ram Chandra Paudel, Prakash Man Singh, KC and Narahari Acharya today demanded that the issue of elevation of Sujata Koirala as a Deputy Prime Minister against the party interest be settled. The CC, however, did not discuss the issue, since it concentrated on the Mahasamiti issue. The leaders recommended specifying a provision in the statute so that the party could take an organisational decision, ending the trend of taking unilateral decisions.