Leaders of several political parties used the Nepali Congress’s 15th General Convention on Sunday to call for generational change, political stability and greater cooperation among the country’s major parties.

Former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai urged leaders of his generation to make way for younger politicians, saying Nepal’s political parties needed to learn from last year’s Gen Z-led protests.

“My message to leaders of my generation is: let us learn from the past. We must now trust the new generation,” Bhattarai said. “The Congress has gone through a generational transition, but it has not been able to maintain unity within the party.”

He said Nepal should not blame external forces for last year’s protests without examining why young people had become disillusioned with the political system.

“We need to ask why we failed to convince young people after establishing federal democracy,” he said.

Bhattarai said Nepal’s failure to achieve stronger economic growth, the large number of young people working abroad and its growing dependence on remittances were signs that the political system had failed to deliver enough economic opportunity.

He urged political parties to protect the Constitution and strengthen its key pillars of federalism, democracy and inclusion rather than seek to undermine them.

Bhattarai also backed a directly elected executive, saying it could provide greater political stability, and argued that Nepal did not need a large number of political parties.

He urged the Rastriya Swatantra Party government led by Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane to complete its five-year term, noting that successive governments had struggled to remain in office for long.

Bhattarai expressed confidence that the Congress under President Gagan Thapa could take important decisions on economic development.

CPN-UML general secretary Shankar Pokhrel said he expected Thapa to emerge as an “acceptable” leader through the convention.

“Through the 15th General Convention, you will establish yourself as an acceptable president,” Pokhrel said, recalling Thapa’s role as a student leader in the movement for a republic.

Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal leader Sharat Singh Bhandari said Nepalis would not accept any form of “controlled democracy”.

Bhandari said Nepal was facing serious economic, social and geopolitical challenges and called for cooperation and national unity among the major parties. He also urged the Congress to support efforts to amend the Constitution where necessary while strengthening the federal democratic republican system and advancing inclusion.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party chairman Rajendra Lingden said the country was facing growing uncertainty and called for national consensus.

He said political attacks had changed form, with social media increasingly being used to target critics instead of the physical violence seen in the past.

Resham Chaudhary, a founding leader of the Nagarik Unmukti Party, said constitutional guarantees for communities such as the Tharus had not been fully realised in practice.

“Rights were written into the Constitution, but they were not delivered,” Chaudhary said, questioning when Tharus would reach the country’s top political leadership.

He said he had renewed confidence in the Congress under Thapa, citing the party’s leading role in drafting the Constitution.

Aaren Rai, general secretary of the Shram Sanskriti Party, said the Congress had been built through decades of struggle for democracy rather than political publicity.

He said Congress leaders had made personal sacrifices for nation-building and urged the party to focus less on retaining power and more on delivering for the public.