Damaru Lal Bhandari

Kathmandu, July 1:

Remarks made by the central leader of the Nepali Congress (NC), Ram Chandra Poudel, for unity between the NC and NC-Democratic before his party’s General Convention has not gone down well with other party leaders. While some aver that the party has authorised Koirala to do the needful in his own way, some feel Poudel was relatively late in raising the issue.

Poudel, who made those remarks yesterday, however, said today he will be taking up the issue with both NC president Girija Prasad Koirala and NC-D leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. “We have run out of time, but we can still unite, if we so decide. We had authorised Girijababu to deal with the issue, but, what is true is that we had authorised him to unify the party, not to keep it asunder,” Poudel told this daily. One can say the issue will not be revisited until and unless the leadership takes it up,” Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said. Another central leader Baldev Majgaiya said: “There is no room for unification of the two parties since elections have already been held in 60 districts.” Sujata Koirala, daughter of GP Koirala, said “We all are for it . We gave it a try, but they (Deuba and others) did not budge. As for Poudel’s remarks, they could not be badly timed than they are.”