A section of Nepali Congress leaders officially launched a campaign for the restoration of Hindu state on Saturday and vowed to make it an agenda of the Mahasamiti meeting scheduled to begin on Monday in Godavari, Lalitpur.

Led by Nepali Congress lawmaker and central committee member Shankar Bhandari, the campaign aims to discuss the restoration of Vedic Sanatan Hindu Rashtra in the upcoming Mahasamiti meeting, the highest policy-making body of the party.

As many as 22 Central Working Committee members on Friday registered their demand for the restoration of the Hindu state at the party. On Saturday, the campaign made public its four-page dossier.

Bhandari sought the support of Nepali Congress leaders and cadres for the agenda. “We will put pressure on the party’s leadership to discuss the agenda of restoration of the Hindu state,” Bhandari said.

“Our party president Sher Bahadur Deuba has received our demand on a positive note.”

While announcing the campaign, Bhandari further claimed that his campaign has the support of not only Deuba but also leaders from CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre).

“This is not just a campaign,” he said. “This is a mega campaign for building the nation.”

But several Congress leaders are not convinced with the agenda. The Central Working Committee meeting of the party that concluded on Friday rejected the agenda’s inclusion in the upcoming Mahasamiti meeting despite 22 central members submitting a memorandum to the party.

“We plan to discuss the agenda with other political parties and communities as well,” Bhandari said.

Former minister and Nepali Congress leader Devendra Raj Kadel said the Congress should lead the campaign for the restoration of the Hindu state.

“We will stage a protest outside the Mahasamiti meeting for the cause. Without Nepali Congress’s decision, it is not possible to restore the Hindu state,” Kadel said, urging the party's supporters to throw their weight behind the campaign.

“If the Nepali Congress agrees to our demand, we can then talk to other parties. The larger political agreement among the political parties will ultimately pave the way for amending the constitution. Once we create the foundation, then we can build a good house.”

At the last Mahasamiti meeting held in December 2018, as many as 700 Mahasamiti members had signed a document calling for the restoration of the Hindu state but no decision was taken on it later. Bhandari had led the campaign in 2018 too.

Over 2,200 elected representatives of the Nepali Congress will participate in the Mahasamiti meeting that will discuss several issues concerning the country’s politics and policies, and the party’s organisation, among other contemporary issues.

Leaders of both pro-Deuba and anti-Deuba camps in the party signed the memorandum on Friday and came together for the campaign's announcement on Saturday.

Some leaders had raised the issue during the Central Working Committee but party president Deuba and other office bearers did not respond to it.

Bhandari, the campaign leader, said that while some party leaders have questioned their intention, “we think we also have a responsibility to the state and the nation.”

“People are frustrated at the current state of affairs,” he said.

Bhandari further claimed that several old leaders of the major political parties have extended their support to the movement he leads.

“We have talked with senior UML and Maoist leaders and they agree that the way religious conversion is taking place in the country makes it certain that it will plunge into a deep crisis,” Bhandari said.

“Though we are communists and our ideology does not permit us to speak about religion, at the end of the day it is about the nation and the state,” Bhandari quoted some senior UML and Maoist leaders as saying.

“So if the Nepali Congress takes the lead on the agenda of the restoration of the Hindu state, we will support it.”