Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Wednesday called the party’s central working committee meeting for July 12. The meeting had been pending for a year and is expected to see heated debates over several issues that the party has been confronting.

A meeting of Deuba, vice-presidents Purna Bahadur Khadka and Dhanraj Gurung, and general secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma took a decision to that effect. The office bearers of the party and central working committee members will attend the meeting, the party said in a brief statement. The last such meeting was held on July 11-18 last year.

According to Clause 21 of the party charter, the central working committee should sit every two months. The committee is tasked with taking decisions about the party’s participation in government, collaboration with other parties, setting criteria for ministerial appointments, and devising the party’s policy on various national issues, among other things.

According to party leaders, the meeting is likely to see heated debate on several outstanding and contemporary issues that concern the party. Ahead of the meeting, general secretary duo Thapa and Sharma have called a gathering of the party’s district presidents in Kathmandu in order to solicit their views on the kind of problems that the party experiences on the ground.

“There are several issues that need to be discussed and we will seriously debate some of them,” said Badri Pandey, a joint general secretary. “The party even didn’t discuss, assess and review the results of the general election held in November last year, and the results of the by-polls, among other things.”

There will also be discussion on organising the policy convention of the party, the meeting of the Mahasamiti, the party’s role in the government and Parliament, about the ruling alliance, and party’s organisations, Pandey added.

Speaking to the Post, a central member said there is a growing concern in the party rank and file that the party was losing its grip and new forces taking hold.

“So organisation-building and coping with emerging challenges should be discussed in the meeting,” the member said. “There are reports coming from several districts that the party’s organisational base is not strong. Some of our youth leaders recently visited the districts and interacted with local leaders and cadres. They returned with a bleak picture of the party’s organisation. The party leadership should take this matter seriously.”

In the past year, the party saw many ups and downs—it contested the elections in an alliance, joined the government led by Maoist Centre chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and suffered heavy defeats in two by-election seats. Meanwhile, its leader and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand has been implicated in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam.

Leaders said that the rival faction of the party led by Shekhar Koirala and general secretaries Thapa and Sharma are likely to ask party chief Deuba why Khand, who is now in judicial custody in connection with the refugee scam, has not been suspended from the party.

“We have yet to evaluate the elections results, bypoll results, formation of the alliance, and prospects of the coalition, among others,” said Ajaybabu Siwakoti, a central member close to Thapa. “The meeting should assess how fruitful the present alliance has become and what would be its future. Can this alliance continue until the next elections?”

Siwakoti also agrees that the party organisation is facing a difficult situation and needs a serious debate.

Eleven new central members including Minendra Rijal, who lost the general secretary election in the party’s 2021 general convention, and 10 women leaders will participate in the meeting for the first time.

“The central working committee is meeting after a long time. It will discuss ways to strengthen the party organisation and revamp its sister organisations,” said Min Bishawkarma, head of the party’s publicity department.

Of late, Deuba has shown preference for calling the meeting of the central work performance committee, rather than the 159-member central working committee.