If the election results of Nepali Congress sister wings are anything to go by, party President Sher Bahadur Deuba is losing his grip on the NC with rival factions registering victory in the general conventions of the sister organisations one after another.

With Ram Chandra Poudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula factions ganging up against Deuba, the establishment faction witnessed bitter defeat as results of the Nepal Trade Union Congress election came out on Saturday. Led by Deuba supporter Khilanath Dahal earlier, the NTUC is considered one of the strongest sister wings of the opposition party.

The entire panel led by Pushkar Acharya, close to the rival faction, was victorious in the sixth general convention held in the Capital. While Acharya got 818 votes, his contender Dhakal got only 533. This is the third back to back defeat for the establishment faction. The rivals emerged victorious recently in the polls to elect new leadership of the teachers’ union and the engineers’ association. Though the engineers’ association does not influence the party line, NTUC and the teachers’ union are considered influential sister wings of the second largest party with impact on the outcome of the general convention of the mother party.

The continuous defeat of the establishment comes at a time when the rival faction is pressing the party leadership to change its working style and to hold an early general convention. Deuba was elected the party president in February 2015 for five years.

“The NTUC result shows that the party rank and file is not satisfied with the working style of party President Deuba and his team,” Prakash Man Singh, an influential leader from the rival faction, told the Post. He claimed that the recent results of sister wing elections are just the tip of the iceberg, which would continue in the days to come. The national convention of Nepal Student Union, another important sister wing of the party, is scheduled for the second week of August.

Leaders close to Deuba, however, said it was futile to make a hue and cry over the results of sister wing elections. “I don’t see how the outcome of sister wing conventions can be linked with popularity of the party leadership,” he told the Post. Karki claimed that Deuba had allowed the conventions to be held in a democratic fashion but the rival factions were trying to make competition unhealthy.