KATHMANDU, Sept 18: The dispute within the Nepali Congress has split its leaders into three camps. The establishment faction led by Gagan Kumar Thapa, who took over the party leadership through a special convention, is preparing for the 15th general convention. Its ward conventions are scheduled to begin on September 19 (Asoj 3).
With two days to go before the ward meetings, many leaders formerly close to outgoing president Sher Bahadur Deuba have returned to the establishment camp. More than three dozen attended Thursday’s central committee meeting in Sanepa. Their return has encouraged Thapa’s faction and left Deuba with fewer allies.
Several leaders close to former acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka also attended after a series of talks with Thapa. Khadka himself will stay away until the Supreme Court settles the dispute over the party’s legitimacy, according to his ally Ramhari Khatiwada. With a case filed by Khadka still before the court, taking either side would be inappropriate, Khatiwada said.
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Khadka has urged Thapa to postpone the convention and begin direct talks with Deuba and other senior leaders. “I am confident that complete party unity is still possible,” he wrote on Facebook. Otherwise, he warned, Congress could hold two rival conventions and split.
Deuba returned to Nepal in mid-August (late Shrawan), having left the country ahead of the House of Representatives election. Since his return, the dissenting camp has been preparing a parallel convention under former general secretary Shashanka Koirala. Deuba’s remaining allies say they will hold their convention in December and have assigned representatives to districts.
A third camp has emerged around Shekhar Koirala, Deuba’s main challenger at the 14th general convention. Shekhar has said he will join neither faction and has asked his supporters to stay away from both conventions. He intends to campaign for unity after they take place.
His ally Badri Pandey said both sides were preparing conventions without making an honest effort to reach an agreement. “This will weaken Congress further,” he said. “We favour broad unity within the party.”
In a statement on Thursday, Shekhar said he could not celebrate a Congress split or argue over which side was right. He said he would work with party members in Nepal and abroad to keep Congress united.
Thapa, meanwhile, told the central committee that he was working for broader unity. He invited Deuba and other former office bearers to attend the convention, saying it would be an honour for Deuba to inaugurate it. Thapa ruled out another postponement. Ward conventions will begin on September 19 (Asoj 3), he said, followed by the central convention from October 2 to 5 (Asoj 16 to 19). The Deuba camp has scheduled its own 15th general convention for December 7 to 9 (Mangsir 21 to 23).
