Dispute over the date of the convention, central committee meeting of Congress has been postponed

Kathmandu – The meeting of the central committee of the Congress, scheduled for Friday, has been postponed because the two General Secretaries, representing the pro-group and the establishment faction, could not reach an agreement on the date of the upcoming general convention of the party.

After the central committee meeting of the Congress, which was only resumed on Thursday after two weeks, the acting chairman, Purna Bahadur Khadka, requested that no proposal regarding the general convention be placed on the agenda — following that, General Secretary Gagan Thapa did not attend the meeting.

Other General Secretary Bishwaprakash Sharma attempted to propose a new general-convention date of 16–21 Poush, but acting chairman Khadka had earlier placed before the two general secretaries a proposal to hold the general convention from 6 Falgun. The government has set the election date for 21 Falgun. Central-committee members close to the two general secretaries say that proposing a convention date two weeks before the election is nothing but a device to postpone the general convention.

Congress central-committee member Ajay Babu Shivakoti said that the establishment faction has an intention to delay the general convention in a timely manner. Shivakoti told Deshsanchar that since no discussion could be held on the convention matter, the meeting was postponed.

Because of the disagreement over the general-convention date in the Congress, other agenda items could not be debated. Since Sher Bahadur Deuba flew to Singapore and Purna Bahadur Khadka has been made acting chairman, factional meetings have been held in the party, but no committee meeting has been held.

On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, the establishment-faction meeting proposed postponing the general convention until after the election and holding it as early as in Baishakh; this triggered the group around General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma.