The ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) will hold its statute convention in Kathmandu next month.

A meeting of the party’s Standing Committee on Saturday decided to hold the three-day jamboree starting February 13 in the Academy Hall at Kamaladi, Kathmandu. As many as 1,300 representatives of the party from across the country will participate in the national gathering that will finalise the party's statute. The statute sets the party's future course.

"The statute convention will endorse the party's statute after discussions," Ganesh Shah, the party secretary, told the Post. As the Maoist Centre's general convention held in December 2021 was solely focused on selecting the party leadership, there was an agreement among the leaders to hold a separate jamboree to discuss and endorse the party statute.

However, it took more than two years for the party to fix the date. The party’s central committee meeting in August had decided to hold the statute convention by mid-December and the special general convention six months later. It was delayed by two months.

Shah said a draft of the statute has been submitted to the party Standing Committee which will be discussed at different levels before it is presented for discussion and endorsement at the convention. Last month, the party formed a seven-member statute draft committee.

Led by party Vice-chair Pampha Bhusal, General Secretary Dev Prasad Gurung, deputy general secretaries Giriraj Mani Pokharel, Barsha Man Pun and Janardan Sharma and secretaries Shah and Surendra Karki are the members of the committee.

"The draft statute will be discussed from the central to the ward levels. All the suggestions received from across the country will be presented at the convention," Shah told the Post. The draft statute has proposed a 151-member central committee. The country's third-largest party has a central committee of over 600 members at present. If the party endorses the draft statute, there will be four party structures at the centre— central, politburo, standing committees and office bearers. In addition, there will be separate committees at the provincial, municipality and ward levels.

Though the draft committee envisions positions of chairperson, vice-chairperson, general secretary, secretary and treasurer in its committees, it hasn't finalised their numbers. "We have left it to the convention to decide their number," said Shah.