Koirala floated Poudel and Sitaula´s names for endorsement during the central working committee meeting on Sunday after his efforts to win the confidence of Deuba-faction failed. [break]
While CWC members from Deuba faction demanded that the nominations -- including 20 CWC members, parliamentary party board members and chiefs of various departments within the party -- be made only after reaching a ´package deal´, Sujata Koirala vented her anger against president Koirala for “failing to keep his words”.
Talking to media persons after the meeting, Sujata claimed that the party president had promised her the post of vice president when she had agreed to drop claim for general secretary´s post during the 12th general convention.
Taking part in the deliberation over Koirala´s proposal, CWC members close to Deuba demanded that the nomination process be shelved till the new regulation of the party is formulated.
“Let´s put off the nomination process for a few days so that the Regulation Committee can bring its draft in the CWC meeting for necessary discussions,” a leader quoted Purna Bahadur Khadka, a close aide to Deuba, as proposing at the meeting.
Deuba faction leaders demanded that they be provided office bearers´ and the nominated CWC positions in proportion to the votes they secured in the 12th general convention.
Altogether 11 CWC members, including Minendra Rijal, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, Prakash Sharan Mahat, Dip Kumar Upadhyay, Arjun Joshi, Aananda Prasad Dhungana, Dilendra Prasad Badu and Gopal Man Shrestha spoke during Sunday´s deliberation. The next CWC meeting has been called for 1 pm Monday, according to CWC member Gagan Thapa.
At the outset of the CWC meeting Koirala had announced the name of vice president and general secretary and asked all CWC members to support his proposal. “There are many competent colleagues in the party. Despite this fact, I have decided to nominate Ram Chandra Poudel as Vice-president and Krishna Prasad Sitaula as the general secretary,” a CWC member quoted Koirala as saying at the meeting. “Do support my proposal.”
President Koirala stressed on the need for unity in the party while floating the names of Poudel and Sitaula for the office bearers´ positions.
During the deliberations, only three CWC members including Dilendra Prasad Badu, Arjun Prasad Joshi and Aananda Prasad Dhungana had supported Koirala´s proposal.
Leaders close to the party president and Deuba had engaged in negotiation till the start of CWC meeting at 4:30 pm in their bid to reach consensus. Khum Bahadur Khadka, a close confidant to Deuba, had met Koirala Sunday morning with Deuba´s proposal for a ´package deal´ to settle the issue amicably.
“The meeting was delayed as President Koirala wanted to talk to Deuba before the start of the meeting,” said the leader close to Deuba.
Of the total 64 members including president, general secretary and treasurer elected directly through the 12th general convention, Deuba faction has 29 members in its fold. The faction can easily reject any proposal presented by the party president should disgruntled CWC members choose to do so.
Of the three office bearers directly elected through the general convention, Koirala has his running mate Prakash Man Singh elected as general secretary. Likewise, Chitra Lekha Yadav from Deuba faction has already been elected the party treasurer.
Deuba faction has demanded that they should be given the berths of either the vice president or general secretary and joint general secretary to ensure balanced representation in the party´s parliamentary party (PP) board.
The party´s office bearers automatically become the members of PP board that is entrusted by the party statute to pick the prime ministerial from the party and also to distribute tickets during the general election.
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