KATHMANDU, Sept 6: Nepali Congress (NC) leader Ramesh Lekhak has warned that the party could head toward a split if the process for its 15th General Convention is not halted immediately.
Lekhak said his faction is prepared to continue with party President Gagan Thapa, but insisted that the party could split if efforts are made to push the General Convention forward against consensus.
Addressing a meeting with party cadres in Dodhara-Chandani, Kanchanpur, Lekhak said they were adopting maximum flexibility to preserve party unity.
“There is still a way out. Let us stop the General Convention from our respective positions. If the General Convention is not stopped, the party will split,” he said.
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Saying that they had been engaged in continuous dialogue and efforts to maintain party unity for the past 11 months, Lekhak said they were not seeking to replace Thapa as party president.
“We have tried to bring the party together on the basis of accepting Gaganji as the president, but we have not been able to reach an agreement,” Lekhak said. “Our demand is not to remove him, but there must be a willingness to reach an understanding.”
As an option for resolving the dispute, Lekhak proposed bringing together the committees formed by the 14th General Convention and the Special General Convention.
He insisted that leaders who were part of the 14th General Convention but were excluded following the Special General Convention must be mandatorily included in the Central Working Committee.
Lekhak also put forward a flexible proposal to give President Thapa a majority in key party committees. He said Thapa could appoint the coordinators of the Election Committee, Active Membership Screening Committee and Disciplinary Committee and retain a majority of members from his faction, while at least one representative from each of the other groups should be mandatorily included in those committees.
