NC likely to get additional veep, joint general secretary

Published On: December 17, 2018 08:55 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba speaks at the closed session of the party's Mahasamiti meeting on Sunday. On the second day of the meeting, the party discussed adding two more office bearers to the party's six-member brass. The party is likely to create a new post of vice-president and a joint general secretary. Photo: Dinesh Bikram Shah/Republica

KATHMANDU, Dec 17: The establishment faction and rival faction within the Nepali Congress (NC) have come closer to an agreement to have an additional position of vice president and joint general secretary in the party’s executive committee.

If the negotiation between the team comprising of Vice President Bimalendra Nidhi and Ramesh Lekhak from the establishment faction and Arjun Narasingh KC and Minendra Rijal from the rival faction led by Ram Chandra Paudel is endorsed by the Central Working Committee meeting scheduled for Monday, the NC will have two vice presidents, two general secretaries and two joint general secretaries. The NC statute drafting committee head Purna Bahadur Khadka was also present in the negotiation.

Currently, the NC’s executive committee consists of a president, a vice president, two general secretaries including one nominated by the president and a joint general secretary. The NC CWC meeting had earlier failed to endorse the party’s revised statute for endorsement through the ongoing Mahasamiti meeting as the rival faction proposed to have three vice presidents, general secretaries and joint general secretaries in the new arrangement.

The establishment faction has insisted that the office bearers’ positions be kept unchanged.

“They have proposed three vice presidents, general secretaries and joint general secretaries, while we have proposed to keep the existing number unchanged. We have come closer to an agreement to have two vice presidents, two general secretaries and two joint general secretaries through our negotiations today,” said a leader belonging to the establishment faction.

Leaders of both the sides apprised their respective leaders about the tentative agreement reached through the negotiations on Sunday. Should everything go as planned, the decision to increase the number of office bearers will be endorsed by the CWC meeting scheduled for 9 am Monday.

Negotiations between the two sides on Sunday also agreed to keep 25 Mahasamiti members in each electoral constituency. They have also agreed to have a provincial committee of the party in line with the new federal setup embraced by the country.

The two sides are also at odds on the size of the party’s CWC. The rival faction has proposed to increase the size of CWC to 141, up from 85-member committee.