Kathmandu, December 15

The establishment faction of the Nepali Congress called a meeting of the party’s central working committee today but the rival faction led by senior leader Ramchandra Paudel boycotted the meeting over non-preparation of calendar of events for the 14th National Convention of the party.

The establishment faction postponed the CWC meeting till 1:00pm tomorrow after a brief meeting today. The Paudel faction has said that it will not attend any party meeting unless the establishment faction prepares calendar for the next national convention of the party.

NC Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi, who is close to party President Sher Bahadur Deuba, said both sides were close to an agreement on the calendar of events for the next national convention but things had yet to be finalised.

“Today we could not discuss issues in detail as Ramchandra Paudel was out of town,” Nidhi said. Paudel went to Biratnagar yesterday.

NC lawmaker Dilendra Prasad Badu, who is close to Paudel, said Nidhi today met party General Secretary Shashank Koirala and told him that Deuba was ready to prepare the calendar for the national convention in the next CWC meeting.

“The establishment faction told us that they were going to discuss some issues related to party organsiation today but we had told the establishment faction that we would discuss all issues together if the calendar for the national convention was prepared,” Badu said.

He added that calendar for the national convention was the most urgent issue for the party at this stage. Deuba had met Paudel yesterday to convince him that increasing the number of party departments and appointments in those departments were more urgent than preparing calendar for the national convention, but Paudel refused to buy his argument.

The Paudel faction sees the establishment faction’s bid to increase the number of party departments as a ploy to delay the preparation of calendar of events for the national convention. Deuba had proposed to increase the number of party departments to 41 from the existing 28.

The tenure of NC leadership ends in March.

“Nidhi briefed Shashank Koirala about the developments. That means the establishment faction is ready to prepare the calendar for the national convention. I hope that the party leadership is working on the calendar of events,” Badu said.

The Paudel faction had boycotted the CWC meeting on Thursday as well over the delay in preparing the calendar of events for the next national convention.

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