KATHMANDU, April 7: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has postponed the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting scheduled for Saturday after failing to forge consensus on the appointment of Central Work Performance Committee with different factions in the party.
The party’s senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel and influential leader Krishna Sitaula are at odds with Deuba over the appointment of members at the 29-member steering body of the party.
Deuba has offered eight members to the Paudel-led faction in the party, excluding office-bearers, in a last ditch effort to garner consensus with the major rival group. But the Paudel-led faction has insisted to appoint members at the work performance committee based on seniority of the party central committee members so that it can ensure more loyal members from the group in the party’s vital body.
“We have insisted appointment of members to the work performance committee based on the seniority of the party leaders so that the crucial body can cope with the challenges that the party needs to face in the future,” said party leader Arjun Narsingh KC, who is close to the Paudel faction.
But the demand of the Paudel faction has troubled Deuba because he has the challenge to accommodate other dissenting leaders within his camp and a yet another faction in the party by appointing few junior leaders in the work performance committee. Leader Sitaula, who was also a contender for the party’s president in the last general convention of NC, walked out of an informal meeting of the party’s top guns on Friday venting ire against the party president for not ensuring leaders from his camp.
“Sitaula doesn’t have any senior leaders in his camp except himself to claim position in the work performance committee. But the party president has assured him of including his loyal leaders in the committee,” said a senior leader of the party requesting anonymity.
NC President Deuba has intensified consultation with key party leaders in recent days to forge consensus on the name of the members to be appointed to the work performance committee.
“The meeting of the CWC has been deferred in a bid to forge consensus among all party leaders prior to appointing the work performance committee members. The party president has been rigorously working for the same,” said NC central committee member Mahendra Yadav. The next meeting of the CWC has not been decided, according to the party leaders.
Deuba has been facing criticism from his rivals in the party for failing to form 28 departments in the party for three years after the party’s general convention and dilly-dallying on announcing the general convention of the party’s student wing. Some leaders have been insisting early general convention of the party as Deuba is planning to extend his tenure by a year using a provision in the party statute.