Though the party had earlier decided to form the central steering committee comprised of the central leaders who wouldn´t contest elections under the first-past-the-post electoral system, the standing committee decided to form the body under the leadership of Khanal, who has decided to contest from his home district Ilam and Kathmandu. The standing committee´s decision was later floated at the CC meeting, which endorsed it.[break]
"We couldn´t form the committee as per the earlier decision because the party chairman and some other leaders construed that such a move would be tantamount to challenging the party leadership," a standing committee member told Republica, requesting anonymity.
In the past, the party used to form separate panels to draft manifesto, steering committee and to finalize poll candidates. "This time around, the party chairman and some leaders were reluctant to go for work division. They wanted to centralize all the tasks in the hands of the chairman and finally the meeting decided to strike some balance and carry out the tasks institutionally through the standing committee," said the leader.
While a section of party rank and file including its youth wing had been strongly lobbying in favor of forming the election steering committee under the leadership of KP Oli, some other leaders were for constituting a taskforce to nominate candidates under the leadership of former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Failing to reach any consensus, the leaders decided to entrust the standing committee itself with the responsibility of drafting the party´s election manifesto and finalizing the list of candidates.
"As a middle way solution, the leaders decided to form the steering committee headed by the chairman with regional coordinators as members," said the leader.
The regional coordinators are Bamdev Gautam, Bidya Bhandari, Yubaraj Gyawali and Shankar Pokharel. Gautam will command the mid-western and far-western development regions, Bhandari will head eastern region, Gyawali the central and Pokharel will be in-charge of the western region. In the past, only one leader would command the central election steering committee and it used to be a large body comprising all the central committee members among other leaders.
While the party´s district and other local bodies have already recommended candidates with some alternatives, the list will be finalized by the standing committee and will finally be endorsed by the all-powerful central committee.
"They came up with the middle-way solution because it was difficult for them to nominate heads and other members for the taskforces due to factional divisions," said a politburo member.
Meanwhile, the CC meeting entrusted the party´s two secretaries -- Gyawali and Pokharel -- and student in-charge Bhanubhakta Dhakal with the responsibility of settling internal disputes within the party´s student wing and help the student body to hold its national convention.
Similarly, the meeting also mandated party´s youth wing in-charge Sher Bahadur Tamang, youth wing chief Mahesh Basnet and its vice-chairman Jhapat Rawal for settling internal rivalry that deepened within the youth wing in the recent days.
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