Nepal’s political party, the Nepali Congress slipped deeper into crisis on Wednesday after the party’s establishment faction voted to expel two sitting general secretaries.
On Wednesday, the party leadership began the process of expelling General Secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, along with co-General Secretary Farmullah Mansur, for five years. This constitutes stripping them of the rights of common party membership.
The decision was made in Sanepa, where acting party president Purna Bahadur Khadka addressed a meeting of the establishment camp’s Central Working Committee, informing it that the decision to expel the rebels was made. This was even as a splinter convention organized by the reformers proceeded in the capital, raising the specter of a split within the country’s ruling party.
Thapa & Sharma emphasized that the party requires a leadership reset before the elections and that only a special convention can sort out problems of who rules, who gets chosen for elections, and what the party rules are. The faction supporting Deuba has dismissed this idea and reiterated that they would not endorse any decision that comes out of this illegal convention.
This came as an aftermath of the deterioration of three-way talks among the groups. According to Khabarhub, the dissidents proposed an eight-point plan, of which appointing Thapa as the candidate for prime minister and seeing Deuba distance himself from the day-to-day party activities. This move was opposed by the rival group in the sense that the latter failed to agree on the proposals, thus ceasing the talks.
The special general convention that started on Sunday went into closed session on Monday with more than half of its convention representatives present, though efforts by Deuba had tried to stop it, according to Nepal Views. It was also reported that Deuba and other top office-bearers boycotted the session with the dissident side forcing the agenda ahead.
Among the proposed solutions was the dissolution of the Central Working Committee elected at the party’s 14th general convention and the formation of a temporary body until the next convention as proposed by Nepal Views. This would likely remove control from Deuba.
Khadka’s position has assumed utmost importance in the conflict as Deuba, through health concerns, made him the acting president in October.
The dispute has also focused on election paperwork and who controls the party’s official signature. Thapa said in November that the party should not contest upcoming elections under Deuba’s signature and that the signature should change once new leadership is elected.
