After a hiatus of over one decade, Nepal Women’s Association (NWA), a sister wing of Nepali Congress, is holding its 3rd general convention in the Capital from Wednesday.

There are three particular panels in the fray. The establishment side, Ram Chandra Poudel-led faction and Krishna Prasad Sitaula have held several rounds of internal talks in the last few weeks to field their separate panels. A proposal by Poudel to make NC leader Sujata Koirala a unanimous candidate to chair the association was said to be out-rightly rejected by the party president, Sher Bahadur Deuba, earlier this week.

From the establishment side, former NC treasurer Chitralekha Yadav, Uma Adhikari Regmi and Manju Khand are possible candidates for presidency. However, leaders say Yadav does not have an active membership of the association for the past ten years, which prevents her from filing her candidacy for presidency.

Khand, on the other hand, whose political career is said to have been overshadowed by her husband Defence Minister Bal Krishna Khand, has been termed as the “most appropriate candidate” by party

insiders. The NWA is traditionally considered a Deuba’s stronghold.

On Tuesday, the Poudel faction announced Mina Pandey as their official president candidate. Announcing their candidacy, Poudel claimed that they were eyeing a revenge after his loss during the party’s general convention in March to Deuba.

“A conspiracy was hatched to defeat me during the conclave. I urge everyone not to fall for it again,” said Poudel.

For the Situala-led faction, though they held a mass meeting in the Capital on Tuesday to come up with an official panel for the elections, several leaders termed it as a “show of strength” to bargain seats with the establishment side.

 During the Nepal Students’ Union election last month, the Sitaula-led faction had also merged with the establishment side in the eleventh hour of  the polls.

There are about 2,300 representatives in the NWA conclave. Almost all representatives have already arrived in the Capital as of Tuesday evening.

Earlier this month, Deuba had formed a committee under NP Saud to hold the convention. All 44 members of the current central committee of the association are barred from contesting in the polls.

The inauguration, on the first day, and the closed-door session, on the second day, will be held at Bhrikutimandap, while the polls are set at Rastriya Sabha Griha on the third day. Deuba will inaugurate the conclave at 1pm on Wednesday.