KATHMANDU, JANUARY 5
Unhappy with the recent nominations made by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba in the central working committee, Shekhar Koirala held a meeting of leaders of his faction and discussed how they could prevent Deuba from making arbitrary decisions and nominations in party bodies.
Koirala lost the election for party president in the recently held 14th general convention of the party to Deuba, but established himself as the second most powerful leader in the party.
Addressing the meeting, Koirala said that 13 party leaders who were nominated by Deuba to the CWC were able but Deuba should make it clear on what grounds they were nominated. He said that opportunities should be distributed in an equitable manner or else party leaders/cadres could question their association with the party.
He said if Deuba continued to select his favourite leaders in the party bodies and continued to neglect those who disagreed with him, that would be unfortunate.
Koirala said that factionalism was bad for the party, but after the general convention party leadership was trying to sideline honest and efficient leaders who had made sacrifices for the party. "If party leadership's activities and decisions lead to frustration in the party, upcoming elections could be challenging for us," Koirala added.
He said the leadership should take decisions that could inject new energy in the party. He asked his party leaders whether or not they should prevent Deuba from taking arbitrary decisions.
He said all decisions should be based on rules.
After the meeting, Arjun Narsingh KC said that his faction's desire for consensus within the party should not be construed by the party leadership as surrendering to its will.
He said his faction championed an ideology of rule based political games at home and a balanced approach in the international arena at a time when two neighbours -- India and China were engaged in rivalry and there was an emerging cold war between the USA and China. "We won't cease to advance our ideology just because we have lost party election," he added.
KC said that the party leadership discriminated against his faction as none of the leaders from his faction who lost party election recently were nominated to the CWC by the party president.
Says Deuba cannot keep neglecting those who disagree with him
A version of this article appears in the print on January 6, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
