The Deuba faction made the decision after a meeting at the residence of party leader Gobinda Raj Joshi Sunday evening held to garner the support of K B Gurung and his aides in the NC PP. Party insiders say Gurung commands at least 12 PP members - whose support would be enough to ensure majority votes for Deuba. [break]
NC has a total 114 PP members. Leaders close to Deuba believe with the support of K B Gurung and his aides and a few disgruntled leaders of the establishment faction, including Arjun Nara Singh KC, they can easily garner 58 votes, a majority sufficient to change the PP leader.
Paudel was elected as PP leader through a voting held in June, 2009, in which he secured 61 votes, with Deuba trailing behind by 13 votes. Leaders close to Deuba believe that Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala, who had supported Paudel in the last PP election, will choose to stay neutral if they decide to go for voting this time.
“There had been an informal agreement to make Deuba the party´s parliamentary leader in exchange for our support to Koirala´s picks of Ram Chandra Paudel as vice-president and Krishna Prasad Sitaula as general secretary. We will follow the due process to remove Paudel if there is no consensus,” said a leader close to Deuba.
The meeting held at Joshi´s residence was participated by Deuba, K B Gurung, Arjun Nara Singh KC, NC Chief Whip Laxman Ghimire and the party leader Binaya Dhwoj Chanda KC, who belonged to the establishment faction but has remained close to Deuba faction after President Koirala chose Sitaula for the post of party´s general secretary.
Leaders close to Deuba said they will first hold serious dialogue with President Koirala on changing the PP leader as ´agreed´ before -- something Koirala has denied outright. “We will have no option left but to field no-confidence motion if President Koirala does not cooperate in changing the PP leader,” said another leader close to Deuba.
Though Deuba met with Koirala Monday afternoon, he could not hold meaningful dialogue on changing PP leader due to the latter´s ailing health condition, said sources privy to the leaders.
Earlier, when Koirala was traveling to US, European countries and India, Deuba faction also expedited signature campaign to show majority votes in its fold to change the PP leader. The leaders claimed that they already have secured signatures of over 50 PP members so far.
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