The largest party in federal parliament—Nepali Congress—is currently a mess with many of its leaders demanding President Sher Bahadur Deuba call crucial meetings so that they could air their discontent.

The Nepali Congress in December 2021 concluded its national convention, which only elected the party’s leadership, but the party is yet to organise a policy convention.

Following the convention that elected Deuba as chief, the new leadership promised to convene its policy convention within six months.

“As per our party statute, central working committee meetings must be held every two months,” said Ajay Babu Shiwakoti, a central working committee member. “But the leadership is flouting the rule on various pretexts.”

As the leadership failed to start policy discussions even a year and half after the convention, leaders have said they would press the leadership to convene the convention by mid-September.

Leaders close to the dissident Shekhar Koirala-Gagan Thapa faction have accused the party leadership of intentionally avoiding questioning and have demanded that party meetings be convened without delay.

“Both general secretaries would press the party president to hold the central committee meeting by mid-June and schedule the policy convention to be held by mid-September,” said Shiwakoti, who is close to general secretary Thapa.

“The two general secretaries are preparing to press the party leadership to hold the policy convention as soon as the monsoon is over.”

A number of Congress leaders have accused the leadership of remaining mere spectators to the illegal activities of party leaders including Balkrishna Khand, who is among the main accused in the notorious Bhutanese refugee scam and has not yet been suspended from the party.

“Conflicting voices are being raised within the party—some demanding a Mahasamiti meeting and others calling for a special convention, as the procedure for convening the policy convention is not clear,” said Pradip Paudel, a lawmaker and central committee member. “However, there is an urgent need for holding serious discussions on policy issues in the party.”

He said an informal meeting of the party’s office bearers recently agreed that the date for the policy convention should be fixed by the central working committee.

The central working committee meeting should also finalise the procedures of the policy convention as this would be the first convention of its type in the party.

During its previous conventions, the party would fix both the policies and leadership together. But the 2021 convention solely focused on electing the leadership after many complained that the election takes the focus away from the party’s policy.

Therefore, the leaders are now pressing the leadership for the policy convention while they are also discussing other options fearing that party President Deuba could wind up the convention without allowing them to discuss major issues including the imminent threat from newer parties.

“It’s essential for the party to allow the leaders to vent their ire against the leadership,” said Paudel. “There is a kind of suffocation within our party.”

General Secretary Thapa, talking to the Post’s sister paper Kantipur recently, said the party cannot wait until the national convention for a change in leadership.

Therefore, Thapa has started visiting various parts of the country to create an environment for a special convention. He says the current leadership is incompetent to lead the party amid the threat posed by new forces.

The Congress leadership, meanwhile, has been delaying the policy convention on various pretexts. The first excuse was the general election, and after that the party focused on forming the government. After its bid to lead the government was unsuccessful with Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the CPN (Maoist Centre) going to the CPN-UML’s side, the leadership focused its energy on breaking the Dahal-Oli partnership and then busied itself in power-sharing.

“The policy convention would determine the party’s policy on various sectors–economic, social, political, foreign, and organisational, among others,” said Jeevan Pariyar, a joint general secretary of the party. “A political document will be presented and endorsed by the convention.”

Pariyar said everything about the policy convention will be decided by the central committee, but the problem is the leadership has not called any meeting yet.