Damauli, January 22

Former Nepali Congress joint general secretary Govind Raj Joshi and his supporters formed a parallel committee of NC Tanahun, in Damauli today.

“As there were attempts in the party to move ahead bypassing me, we had to form a new committee,” said the leader, inaugurating a special convention to form the parallel committee today. “Forming a new committee was an imperative in view of the attempts to efface the party,” he further argued .

The parallel committee is headed by Dilliram Adhikari and has Chinu Pokhrel and Balchandra Poudel as secretary and treasurer. Similarly, Bal Kumari Lohani, Elisa Gurung, Keshar Bahadur Gurung, Chitta Bahadur Thapa, Nurchandra Wagle and others have been picked as members.

Following the announcement of the committee, Joshi’s supporters had taken out a rally with party flags that made a round of the Damauli Bazaar.

Police had beefed up security at the site today in view of possible clashes between different factions of the party. The Joshi faction had bussed thousands of people in 30 to 40 buses from villages for the special convention. Meanwhile, the rival faction led by senior NC leader Ramchandra Paudel accused Joshi and his supporters of bringing supporters of other political parties from villages for the so-called convention.

“It was a total farce staged by Joshi and his supporters in the name of special convention or whatever by using supporters of former Maoist and CPN-UML parties,” the Paudel faction accused, describing Joshi’s act as undermining the party and its statute.