KATHMANDU, Dec 18: The establishment and the dissident factions within the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) have agreed to unveil calendar of events to hold the party’s 14th general convention by mid-March 2021.
The two sides reached an understanding to first unveil the calendar events of the upcoming general convention as per the demand of a dissident faction led by Ram Chandra Paudel after marathon negotiations between the two sides. The two sides, however, are yet to finalize the exact date to hold the convention - either by mid-December 2020 or by mid-March 2021, according to party insiders.
NC to hold 14th general convention in Feb 2021
“An agreement in principle has been reached between the two sides to extend the term of current central working committee by a year and unveil calendar of events of the general convention to hold it by the first or the second week of March 2021,” said a leader involved in the negotiation. “There has been a positive discussion to endorse the calendar of events of the general convention through a Central Working Committee that will be attended by the rival faction leaders as well.” The next CWC meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Sources said rival faction leaders, who earlier walked out of the CWC meeting demanding President Sher Bahadur Deuba to first unveil the calendar of events to hold the 14th general convention of the party, are now positive about conducting the general convention by mid-March 2021. “The date itself is not a big deal. We can agree on any date. But we need to be assured that the convention will take place within a year or so,” said a leader of the rival faction requesting anonymity.
Sources said the two factions are yet to reach an agreement on the number of central departments that President Deuba wants to increase. Although the rival faction that earlier stood against increasing the number of party’s central departments has become positive about it, the two sides are at odds over the departments that they have been claiming for.
Earlier, President Deuba had proposed to increase party’s central departments to 42, up from the existing 28.
