Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 5:

The continuing detention of Nepali Congress (NC) president Girija Prasad Koirala is affecting the party’s organisational cohesion already, with insiders already counting the factions that the central leadership has split into. While CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and NC (D) President Sher Bahadur Deuba have named their deputies in Jhala Nath Khanal and Gopal Man Shrestha, Koirala has made no such move yet. Insiders say this is a pointer to the dilemma he is in, since none of those whom he would have liked to depute as his second-in-command is a free person currently. Insiders claim that Koirala would have appointed general secretary Sushil Koirala as deputy, but the latter is detained in Nepalgunj. The NC boss is said to have no faith in others who are currently free, including Shailja Acharya. Thus, he is strapped for someone to keep the flock together.

In such a situation, the party appears to be heading in three different directions, with the central leader failing to settle the differences among them or evolve a second-rung leader from among them. While the first group is currently based in New Delhi and has the members rooting for a republican set-up with a new constitution following elections to the constituent assembly, the second group comprises centrist leaders who are currently not only in the capital but also free.

The second group which has leaders like Ram Chandra Paudel, among others, believes the only way out is a peaceful agitation followed by progressive democratic reforms as the solution for insurgency. The third group has only Shailja Acharya and speaker Taranath Ranabhat at the central level, with both of them suggesting a safe distance from the rebels as well as the royalists. Insisting that joint movement is not the way out, the group would have the King take positive steps to revive the 1990 constitution after engaging in dialogue as part of the politics of consensus. However, other central leaders like general secretary Koirala, Khum Bahadur Khadka, remain tightlipped on the issue of the unfolding scenario. Interestingly, general secretary Koirala has his close aides in the camp which is now reportedly suggesting a hard line vis-a-vis the monarchy. Another member of the Koirala clan, Nona Koirala, can also be expected to belong to the first group since her son, Dr Shekhar Koirala, belongs to that group after being thrown in the company of those who have toughened their posture.