Koirala to settle party office-bearers row at CWC

KATHMANDU, March 29: Amidst criticisms from various quarters for failure to pick three office bearers even months after the party´s 12th general convention, Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has decided to finalize nominations of a party vice president, general-secretary and joint general-secretary through the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting that began Sunday.



NC CWC members close to Koirala said the party president is inclined to settle the nominations through voting if there is no consensus on his proposal to nominate Ram Chandra Paudel as vice-president and Krishna Prasad Sitaula as general-secretary. [break]



During a CWC meeting held at the end of November, Koirala proposed Paudel and Sitaula as vice-president and general-secretary, respectively. He withdrew the proposal after the rival faction led by Sher Bahadur Deuba strongly opposed it.



Under Article 21 (D) of the party statute, the elected president picks a vice-president, a general-secretary and a joint general-secretary from among the elected CWC members and gets them endorsed by the elected CWC body. Koirala is scheduled to call a separate meeting of elected CWC members within days to settle the nominations.



Altogether 64 members including the president, a general-secretary and the treasurer are directly elected through the general convention. Though Koirala holds a comfortable majority in the 85-member CWC after nominating 16 CWC members, he does not command a majority among elected CWC members -- something he requires to get his nominations through.



Party insiders say the Deuba faction has 29 of the 64 CWC members elected directly through the general convention. The establishment faction is likely to fall in minority as some CWC members including K B Gurung, Arjun Narsingh KC and Gagan Thapa, who are deemed close to the establishment faction, remain dissatisfied with the nomination proposal.



Those close to the Deuba faction have vowed to foil the nomination bid if they are not given either a vice-president or a general-secretary in the party office bearers´ body. “We will go for voting if Koirala fails to change his nominations,” said CWC member Gopal Man Shrestha.



Koirala is also yet to nominate members of the party´s work performance committee, the parliamentary board, the disciplinary committee and the heads of 28 various departments in the party. These are endorsed by the CWC body comprising both elected and nominated members.



Though Koirala commands a comfortable majority for making nominations to the crucial positions, he will have to choose judiciously as the Deuba faction has demanded proportionate representation in all these bodies.

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