About a dozen of them held a meeting at senior NC leader Chakra Prasad Bastola´s Khumaltar residence on Friday and the group is meeting more central level leaders on Sunday. "At least 19 central leaders have agreed to attend the meeting," said Bastola. [break]
NC leaders Narahari Acharya, Mahesh Acharya, Minendra Rijal, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Amod Prasad Upadhyaya, Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, Dr Narayan Khadka, Bhim Bahadur Tamang and Suprabha Ghimire, among others, were present at Friday´s meeting. Though not present at the meeting, Pradeep Giri is also part of this alliance.
NC leader Bastola terms this a "non-aligned" group-- meaning it won´t have any allegiance to either of the camps led by NC presidential candidates Sushil Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Central leaders close to neither NC party presidential candidates Koirala and Deuba have formed a loose alliance to enhance their voice and influence in the party´s upcoming general convention slated for September 17-21.
Justifying formation of the alliance, Bastola said it aims to end factionalism in the party and consolidate party unity.
"There are the so-called ´establishment faction´ and ´democratic faction´ in the party with allegiances to Koirala and Deuba respectively,” he said, adding, “This will affect the upcoming convention and party unity. We want to save the party from this factionalism.”
NC leader Khadka said they are equally concerned about ensuring representation in the CWC of youths and party leaders making huge contributions to the party. “We will work towards avoiding the possibility of a vertical split in the party,” he added.
The grouping, however, has in mind more than just ending factionalism in the party. An overwhelming majority of members of this loose alliance are individuals who once had strong ties either to the late Girija Prasad Koirala or Deuba but these ties lapsed in due course.
Many members of this group had several rounds of meetings before the royal coup of February 1, 2005 and they had discussed the possibility of challenging Girija Prasad Koirala as party president during the NC´s 11th convention. That discussion took a back seat after the royal coup as they rallied behind Koirala´s leadership to fight the putsch. However, Narahari Acharya filed his candidacy against Koirala to register symbolic opposition and was defeated by a huge margin.
Most of these leaders also came together during the election of NC´s Parliamentary Party leader and they eventually rallied behind Ram Chandra Poudel, ensuring his comfortable victory over Deuba in a second round of voting.
One of their common concerns now is how to get themselves elected to the central committee at the convention slated for September 17 to 21.
This group´s goal will be to elect as many of its members as possible to the central committee. "It will be a disaster for the party if many of its competent and well-meaning leaders fail to make it to the central working committee," said one senior leader. He added: "We may even field candidates for the posts of general secretary and treasurer but that´s a decision we’ll take later."
It is estimated that some 30 percent of the 3,000-plus general convention representatives are ´neutral´ and have no allegiance to either group.
This new grouping hopes that the ´neutral´ voters would boost the chances of its members during the party convention.
“It is not necessary that all of us win in the election,” said Narahari Acharya, adding, “This is a fight over ideology and certain convictions.”
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