KATHMANDU, April 6: With party´s top leadership agreeing to incorporate their concerns, dissenting Nepali Congress (NC) Central Working Committee (CWC) members have agreed to abstain from writing ´note of dissent´ on the political paper to be presented before the upcoming Mahasamiti meeting.
The 22 CWC members had earlier decided to write ´a note of dissent´ on the paper prepared by the party´s vice president Ram Chandra Paudel as their four-point demand was not incorporated in the paper presented in the CWC meeting Thursday. [break]
"Since the party leadership has agreed to treasure our demands and mention our separate position on the chief justice-led Interim Election Council, we have agreed to take a single political paper to the Mahasamiti meeting," said CWC member Shanker Bhandari, who is one among the 22 disgruntled members.
NC´s Mahasamiti meeting, which is mandated to take policy decisions, is scheduled to begin April 8 in Nawalparasi. The Mahasamiti members are expected to give suggestions to the party leadership on various contentious issues such as federalism, system of governance, inclusiveness and various other issues related to the new constitution and concurrent political situation.
There had been an agreement during Thursday´s CWC meeting that lasted till late night to allow dissenting members to write ´note of dissent´ on the document after Paudel did not mention anything about the dissenting voice within the party over the formation of CJ-led government in his paper.
But concluding that the ´note of dissent´ could divide the entire floor of the Mahasamiti meeting, Paudel and General Secretaries duo Prakash Man Singh and Krishna Prasad Sitaula had invited the dissenting members to talks on Friday to discuss incorporating their concerns in the political document.
"The political document now clearly mentions that there were dissenting voices within the party over the formation of the CJ-led Interim Election Council. Since our concerns have been incorporated in the proposal, we have decided to go with a single political document in the Mahasamiti meeting," said CWC member Gagan Thapa, who is one among those demanding resignation of Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi as chief justice.
CWC member K B Gurung on behalf of the dissenting CWC members had presented a four-point proposal for endorsement at the outset of the CWC meeting last Thursday. In the proposal, they demanded that the party officially ask Regmi to step down from the post of chief justice, ask the govt to conduct election by mid-July, fill the remaining vacancies in the constitutional bodies only after fresh election, and start holding negotiations with the political forces that have been obstructing the voters´ registration process.
The dissenting members argued that the same person heading both executive and judiciary violates the basic principle of separation of powers. "But we are now one on election. The whole party stands united for going to fresh elections and securing majority in the election," said Thapa.
Thursday´s CWC meeting had unanimously endorsed the party´s financial report prepared by Treasurer Chitra Lekha Yadav, the party´s statute amendment proposal prepared by General Secretary Sitaula and the party´s organizational report prepared by another General Secretary Singh with some suggestions. Singh was asked to incorporate in his report the reasons behind the failure of the party leadership to help give full shape to the sister organizations and holding their general conventions on time.
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