A PP meeting held after a gap of two months endorsed the statute providing for a deputy leader in the parliamentary party, said Jagadishwar Narsing KC. The PP leader will handpick the deputy leader but get the nomination endorsed by parliamentarians. [break]
The country’s oldest democratic party was unable to elect its PP leader for such a long period following a dispute over whether the deputy leader in parliament should be elected in a democratic fashion or handpicked by the leader.
The last meeting held on December 1 had failed to endorsee a draft statute prepared by a panel led by party General Secretary Bimalendra Nidhi. As Girija Prasad Koirala asked the lawmakers to pass the statute only after dropping a clause providing for election of a deputy leader along with the leader, the meeting was put off.
After sensing Koirala’s objection to the clause, the drafting panel had proposed a provision on due approval of the leader’s choice of deputy, but that too was against Koirala’s interests. Koirala wanted the deputy leader to be nominated by the leader himself so as to avert any possible leadership tussle.
During the last meeting, lawmakers Pradeep Giri, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Dip Kumar Upadhyaya and Ramesh Rijal were a few who objected to Koirala’s call for dropping the proposed provision. They claimed that direct election of a deputy leader would help strengthen internal democracy in the party and line up a successor to Koirala who is still leading the party despite his frail health.
Koirala, who even opposed the idea of getting the nomination endorsed at a PP meeting, was absent from Wednesday’s meeting as was former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Deuba was against the concept of a deputy leader in the PP.
Because of the absence of Koirala and Deuba, party vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel chaired the meeting. This, however, was against the party statute. The party statute provides that the seniormost member will chair the meetings until the PP elects its leader.
Besides election of the deputy leader, the statute provides for a separate 27-member working committee where women, janajatis, dalits, Madhesis and other such groups are given a proportional share. At least one woman will be nominated or elected PP leader, deputy leader, chief whip or whip.
The statute has also provided for 24 committees in the Constituent Assembly (CA) to look after all the issues of all 14 committees in the CA and the 10 committees in parliament.
The statute will be enforced after the party Central Working Committee approves it.
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