Kathmandu, April 28

A scheduled meeting of the Nepali Congress Central Working Committee could not take place due to conflict between party President Sher Bahadur Deuba and the faction led by Ramchandra Paudel.

A source at NC headquarters said although the CWC meeting was scheduled for 9:00am today, it could not be held due to conflict between the establishment faction and Paudel’s faction over whether the poll performance review report being prepared by General Secretary Shashank Koirala should state that the leadership’s weaknesses and violation of party statute were also behind the loss in provincial and parliamentary elections.

The party has scheduled its next CWC meeting for tomorrow morning.

NC, which had emerged as the largest party after the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections, stood as the third largest party after provincial and parliamentary elections held in November and December 2017.

The NC source said Deuba and his loyalists were trying to mention in the report that the NC lost the election mainly due to the poll alliance between the CPN-UML and CPN-MC on the eve of provincial and parliamentary elections; while Paudel, Prakash Man Singh and Krishna Prasad Sitaula demanded that the report state clearly the leadership’s weakness was also one of the reasons why the party lost. The Deuba faction has, however, said all the leaders and office bearers of the party were equally responsible for the loss.

NC leader Prakash Man Singh told THT that the leadership was always responsible for the party’s electoral loss. “It is always the party leadership that takes credit for electoral victory and in the same way it is the party leadership that should take blame for the party’s loss,” he said and added that he and other friends had demanded that the poll review report must state the leadership’s weakness and take corrective measures.

“We have adopted the federal system but our party statute still has unitary provisions. We want to change the statute through the general convention,” he said and added that the review report must also state that the leadership’s failure to form committees on time led to the poll debacle. “Our party leadership was supposed to form some committees within two months from the date the last general convention was held, but two years have passed and yet the leadership has not formed those committees,” he added.

The Paudel faction has also said the CWC and parliamentary board were formed in violation of the party statute and therefore, these bodies had to be dissolved.