Ending a row over the number of office bearers, the Central Working Committee of the Nepali Congress has approved a new party statute.

After a week of deliberations, the ongoing Mahasamiti meeting of the opposition party on Friday evening unanimously approved the amended charter presented by Congress General Secretary Purna Bahadur Khadka, the party said a statement.

According to the decision, the NC will have 14 office bearers while the Central Working Committee will be 177-strong, up from 88 members at present.

After changing goal posts, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday floated the proposal to have 14 office bearers, which was endorsed by the CWC later, said Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma.

According to the decision, the office bearers include a president, two vice-presidents, two general secretaries, eight joint general secretaries and a treasurer.

Among the eight joint general secretaries, seven will represent different clusters of indigenous groups while one comes from the marginalised community.

All the proposed office bearers except the treasurer will be elected from the general convention.

The Mahasamiti meeting scheduled to end on Wednesday is likely to conclude on Sunday. Khadka will table the amended draft at the Mahasamiti for approval on Saturday, the party stated.

The central committee also decided the composition of the party’s parliamentary board responsible for selecting candidates for the general, provincial and local elections in line with the federal set-up.

Several Mahasamiti members have left Kathmandu after party leaders failed to reach a decision while the meeting was deferred repeatedly. Some members vented ire at the party leadership for discussing only posts and positions that profit them.

This is a meeting called to discuss the party’s ideology but it is focused on managing leaders close to the party leadership, said an NC leader.

The meeting of the 1,600-strong body has been halted for the CWC meeting.

At the meeting held on Friday morning, party leaders had agreed to 13 office bearers including the president, two vice-presidents, two general secretaries, seven joint general secretaries and a treasurer.

Leaders agreed to have seven joint general secretaries—one each from seven ethnic clusters—and hold election for all the posts except for the treasurer. This proposal was rejected.