The much-awaited Mahasamiti meeting of Nepali Congress is set to get postponed once again. The party has called a meeting of its central work execution committee for Friday to decide on the postponement.

Earlier, the meeting of the Mahasamiti, the party’s highest policy making body, was called for November 7. But the meeting was called off after the November 3 earthquake, which rocked the country, affecting Jajarkot and Rukum districts the most. The meeting was then rescheduled for January 1–4 in Godavari, Lalitpur. But that date is also not going to stick with leaders citing the elections to the National Assembly, among other reasons, for the deferral.

“The meeting will be deferred because party leaders will be busy in upcoming elections to the National Assembly,” said Ram Hari Khatiwada, a Congress lawmaker from Okhaldungha.

The election to the National Assembly is scheduled for January 25.

President Sher Bahadur Deuba had proposed to postpone the Mahasamiti meeting during a meeting of the party’s office bearers on November 29, according to a Nepali Congress leader. “Actually Deuba is not interested in holding the meeting at a time when the party is confronting several challenges, including regarding the government where Nepali Congress has highest numbers of ministers,” the leader said, adding the party is now mulling to convene the meeting in February or March.

Senior Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koirala said that Deuba has cited cold weather for the meeting’s postponement this time. “Friends from Tarai-Madhesh would have a hard time coming to Kathmandu due to the cold weather so it would be better to postpone the meeting,” Koirala quoted Deuba as saying. Both the general secretaries, however, have opposed the proposal to defer the meeting, Koirala added.

In the office bearers’ meeting, general secretary duo Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma had opposed Deuba’s proposal, arguing that since a lot of preparation has already been made, there is no need to postpone the meeting. Both Sharma and Thapa and party’s Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka are preparing to submit different proposals at the Mahasamiti meeting.