Kailali, February 8

The 13th district convention of the Nepali Congress was adjourned due to disputes between two groups of Sher Bahadur Deuba’s faction in Kailali today.

The convention was cancelled after Deuba faction’s district president Nar Narayan Shah and the party’s lawmaker Pushkar Nath Ojha aligned groups clashed with each other over the candidate selection process.

As Deuba had directed party activists to elect Shah as district president, another aspirant Narayan Datta Bhatta had to step back, which resulted in clashes.

Bhatta sustained injuries in the incident.

Following the incident, lawmaker Ojha said he would quit as lawmaker, saying district president Shah had violated the earlier agreement.

With disputes mounting between the two factions, the convention was called off and it has been scheduled for 9: 00am tomorrow.

Bhatta was preparing to file candidacy for the post of president while Purna Kunwar and Sewak Ram Chaudhary were preparing to vie for secretary and treasurer respectively from Ojha’s panel.

But after Deuba asked Bhatta to call off his candidacy for the post and he was ready, Shah violated the agreement on the posts of secretary and treasurer, according to the Ojha faction.

Keshav Mishra claimed to be legitimate candidate for the post of secretaryfrom Shah’s panel.

However, Ojha was lobbying and had several telephone conversations with Sher Bahadur Deuba and he had urged Kunwar and Chaudhary as candidates for the post of secretary and treasurer respectively.

Though the election committee started voting one-and-a-half an hour later due to the dispute, Ojha announced that all the candidates from his faction would call off their candidacy and he would also resign from the lawmaker’s post at a press meet.

He was elected a lawmaker from Constituency No 6 of the district in the second CA polls.

With Ojha’s resignation, party activists loyal to him, demanded that the election be called off and threw away the ballot boxes.

A clash erupted after Bhatta went to vandalise the boxes later and he sustained injuries on his head and face. He is receiving treatment at a local health facility.