It had been a long time since Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa and senior leader of the party Shekhar Koirala shared a podium. Thapa won the election of the party’s general secretary from the Koirala camp, but Koirala himself lost the contest for party presidency to Sher Bahadur Deuba at the 14th general convention in December 2021.

According to party insiders, initially, it was thought that Koirala and Thapa would form a strong camp and rival faction against Deuba, who enjoys the support of over 70 percent of the current central working committee, considered the party’s most powerful decision-making body.

The personal and political ties between Koirala and Thapa, however, couldn’t be that cordial even though their relation was expected to be strengthened after the general convention, a leader close to Koirala said.

“Their relations soured further after Koirala failed to consult Thapa while pushing Kedar Karki as chief minister of Koshi Province in October.”

On Wednesday, after a long hiatus, Koriala and Thapa shared the dias to criticise Deuba for running the party unilaterally.

Initially, Koirala had called a meeting of his camp for Tuesday, but Thapa was not informed. But the meeting was deferred.

Later, a senior Congress leader Arjun Narsingh KC, who is also Thapa’s father-in-law, brought Koirala and Thapa together at his residence on Tuesday evening and tried to help clear misunderstanding between them.

But the other general secretary, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, who is equally critical of Deuba, was not invited to the Wednesday meeting. Yet another vocal voice against Deuba, Pradeep Poudel, who has a similar position as Thapa and Sharma on government and party affairs, was also not invited.

Thapa had declined to attend the meeting called by Koirala on Tuesday but did so on Wednesday. Some leaders close to Koirala claimed that Thapa’s hobnobbing with party vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka made Koirala suspicious, and the two stopped communicating.

Khadka, who is serving as deputy prime minister and minister for defence, is from the Deuba camp and is widely seen as the next candidate for party president from the camp.

When asked whether Wednesday’s meeting could bring Koirala and Thapa together, former minister and Nepali Congress leader Minendra Rijal said the meeting had decreased the distance between Koirala and Thapa. He emphasised that the objective was to make the party more functional.

“The primary agenda of the meeting is how to make the party more effective; it shouldn’t stagnate. Everybody in the party should come together to make it strong and effective,” said Rijal.

In Wednesday’s gathering attended by leaders of the Koirala-Thapa camp, Koirala claimed there was no misunderstanding between him and Thapa. Several leaders of the camp who spoke on Wednesday, however, expressed dismay over growing differences between Koirala and Thapa.

“We don’t have any rift as reported outside and we are one, as we used to be in the past,” Koirala clarified while talking about his relation with Thapa. “Some people are deliberately trying to create a rift between us, but I urge you all not to believe those rumours. We don’t have any misunderstanding.”

“I and Gagan are cooperating from time to time, we discuss issues. We also had a long conversation on Tuesday. We don’t have any problem working together,” Koirala said. “Neither the country nor the Nepali Congress is headed in the right direction, so let’s change the course of both.”

Koirala said he and Thapa are on the same page when it comes to major agendas, and were hence together in the meeting. But he could have some differences with Thapa due to the difference in age and way of thinking, he asserted.

In the meeting, Thapa also came clean on Koirala and proposed him as the next parliamentary party leader. In December last year, Thapa had lost the election for the party's parliamentary leader to Deuba. “Deuba won’t mend his errant ways, so we have to change the party’s top leadership,” said Thapa in the meeting, “It is clear that Deuba can no longer lead the party.”

Stressing the need for unseating Deuba from the party’s parliamentary leader, Thapa proposed Koriala for the position. “Starting today, let’s work to remove the party’s parliamentary party leader,” said Thapa. “Let’s work to elect Koirala as his replacement.”

“If Deuba continues as the party’s leader, the party will be in more trouble. The party leader has become the patron of a certain group and leaders,” Thapa said in the meeting. As per the Congress statute, only a parliamentary party leader can be a prime minister candidate.

Koirala and Thapa were seen on the same page when the leadership of Deuba was discussed. “If we don’t replace the party’s parliamentary leader and Deuba again becomes the prime minister, we won’t be able to hold the upcoming 15th general convention in two years,” Thapa said. “Let’s unite and stand against Deuba, not against each other.”

In the meeting, another vice president of the party, Dhan Raj Gurung, said that the party should avoid fielding candidates who had lost in general elections, especially in the upcoming National Assembly elections scheduled for January 25.

Gurung stressed the need for prioritising new faces, a sentiment that resonated prominently at the meeting.

At a time Congress leaders who are old and who lost the general elections like Gopal Man Shrestha, Krishna Prasad Situala, and others have expressed their interest in the National Assembly membership, the gathering of the Koriala-Thapa camp decided to reject the old guard.

Similarly, the gathering also expressed reservations over Deuba’s plan to defer the party’s Mahasamiti meeting scheduled for January 1-4 in Godavari, Lalitpur. Deuba and leaders from his camp are in favour of deferring the event citing the upcoming National Assembly elections and the cold in Kathmandu.

“No, the meeting should not be deferred,” said Gurung, who is also the Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs. “It will be unfair to repeatedly postpone the meeting.”

The Koirala-Thapa camp also stressed the need for fair ticket distribution for the National Assembly elections. “There must be fairness in selecting candidates for the upper house,” said General Secretary Thapa after the meeting.

As Koirala and Thapa commanded over 60 percent votes in the last general convention and as per the vote ratio, they will ask for a proportional share of seats in the National Assembly. The meeting also expressed concerns over growing public frustration against the present government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal where the Nepali Congress is the largest partner.

We discussed the issue of poor governance, said Thapa. “At a time when we are in the Cabinet, the government is being plagued by one after another scandal. We have to put pressure on the government, ask it why it has failed to deliver on good governance.”