GAIGHAT, AUG 4: The Gaighat chapter of Nepali Congress (NC) has recommended that half a dozen local leaders and cadres of the party be punished “for betraying and not supporting the party during the recently held local elections.”
A ward committee of Triyuga Municipality-13 has forwarded the names of five leaders and cadres for the punishment to the party's higher level authority after concluding that they were involved in plotting against the party's candidates during the elections.
According to NC ward chairperson Govinda Dahal, a recently held meeting of the ward committee decided to recommend the names of some district and regional party members for punishment.
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Dahal said the committee has decided to take action against the party's district working committee member Shiva Kumar Katuwal, regional committee member Dip Narayan Chaudhary, former regional member Dharma Raj Thapa, former regional representative Bhola Bhattarai and former district member Samundri Prasad Chaudhary.
Dahal said these local leaders and cadres of the party had been found wooing voters for other parties like CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) during the elections, instead of promoting their own party. "If they had supported us and lobbied for more votes, we wouldn't have lost by a narrow margin," said Dahal.
Dahal said most members of the committee were of the view that the 'traitors' should be expelled from the party and be deprived of even the general membership in the future.
"It is very much important to punish such members so that they won't dare similar activities in the future," said Dahal, adding, "The party cannot win as long as it has such traitors."
Meanwhile, Bidur Basnet, district president of NC stated that the ward committee has no right to recommend punishment against anyone. He further argued that even the district committee has no right to punish the members.
