The internal crisis within the main opposition Nepali Congress has further escalated after 56 district presidents of the party on Tuesday warned of calling a special general convention if the central leadership fails to correct the new party charter endorsed by a recent Central Working Committee meeting.

They have called on the party leadership to expunge the provision in the charter, whereby sitting CWC members could automatically become the general convention representatives.  

Though the NC Mahasamiti meeting in December 2018 had decided to amend the party’s charter, so that every general convention representative is elected from the grassroots level, the party’s CWC meeting on February 24 instead adopted a provision exempting sitting CWC members from going through the election process.

The NC Mahasamiti is the party’s highest policy making body whose decision should be incorporated by the party, and the general convention the platform from where the party picks its leadership.

During the Mahasamiti meeting, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel and almost all members had expressed their commitment to endorse the meeting’s recommendations, the agitating NC district presidents said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We are surprised that the central committee meeting reversed the decisions taken by the Mahasamiti meeting,” read the statement.

The Mahasamiti meeting and the party’s district presidents had also asked the CWC to end the cycle of picking same leaders under the proportional representation quota. The request, too, was ignored when the CWC meeting endorsed the party charter.

The majority of the NC district presidents are against the provision that automatically allows sitting CWC members to represent and vote in the general convention, with only 19 district presidents in support.

Some leaders have ignored the fact that the Mahasamiti is above the CWC, the disaffected NC district leaders said.

The decision made by the CWC, they added, has dashed the hopes of the NC cadres who were upbeat after the Mahasamiti meeting.

Though the decision of the CWC meeting to go against the Mahasamiti’s advice was challenged by senior leaders Poudel and Krishna Prasad Situala, Deuba got better of them by approving the charter with majority votes.

Leaders close to Deuba are against the idea of general convention representatives being elected from the party’s grassroots level, saying that it will trim the chances of prospective party leaders from getting elected in the CWC.