Factional feud in the Nepali Congress has deepened after several senior party leaders including former and present office bearers were excluded from a party meet in Pokhara.

Ironically, the objective of the Pokhara orientation programme was to unify the party, as claimed by the Central Policy, Investigation and Training Academy, which organised the event for the party’s district presidents and vice-presidents. Party vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka heads the academy.

According to the Congress, all 77 district presidents and vice-presidents were invited to the three-day programme starting Monday. However, senior party leaders such as Shekhar Koirala, Shashanka Koirala, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Bimalendra Nidhi and Prakashman Singh were not invited to the orientation whose stated goal was to rejuvenate the party by ending decades-old factionalism and groupism.

“I was not invited,” Shekhar told the Post. “But some leaders like Vice-president Dhanraj Gurung and General Secretary Gagan Thapa were there.” In the last general convention, both Gurung and Thapa were elected from the Koirala camp even as Koirala was beaten by Sher Bahadur Deuba in the party president race.

Although Gurung was invited, he was not given any role, said a Congress leader from Pokhara. Khadka, another vice-president, was active and seen rubbing shoulders with party chief Deuba. Thapa, who is seen as increasingly close to Deuba, was also active throughout the three-day event but leaders close to the Koiralas, Nidhi, Singh and Sitaula were sidelined.

“I have no qualms about not being invited,” said Koirala. “Several other leaders were not invited either. Why not? The organisers might know.”

Khadka had a dominant presence at the orientation, another Congress leader from the Koirala faction said. But Vice-president Gurung and General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma were not given any role. Sharma got a chance to address the gathering only on Wednesday.

“Although the event aimed to unify and strengthen the party, by not inviting senior leaders, a negative message has been sent to party cadres,” the Congress leader from the Koirala faction said.

Several district presidents of the party had complained about the absence of many senior leaders, according to multiple Congress leaders. The way Khadka dominated the entire show was reportedly not seen as normal by leaders and cadres in Pokhara. Thapa even had to clarify that he is still with Shekhar.

“Shekhar Koirala and I will be in the same faction until the 15th general convention,” Thapa told the media. “I respect him as my leader and will respect him in the future too.”

At the 14th general convention, both Shekhar and Thapa contested from the same panel. Thapa won a general secretary position but Shekhar lost the party chief race. Party members and outsiders are now questioning if the Shekhar-Thapa camp has split. Yes, the two leaders are drifting apart, according to multiple sources close to both the leaders.

Distance between Shekhar and Thapa is widening and misunderstanding between them growing, particularly after Thapa started cozying up to Deuba. On the other hand, Shekhar is critical of the party’s governing coalition with the CPN-UML. But Thapa, working in a core team that supports the ruling coalition, has extended full support to the KP Sharma Oli-led government.

Officially, both Shekhar and Thapa are in the same camp, but both are preparing to contest the post of party president in the coming general convention whose date is yet to be fixed.

“As I am the general secretary of the party, I want to be the leader of all Congress supporters. But when it comes to a particular faction, I am definitely in the Shekhar group. I still believe we are together but whether we will stay together is a personal choice,” said Thapa.

By trying to sideline some party leaders, Khadka was totally exposed, the Congress leader close to Koirala said. Even several of Deuba’s close confidants were unhappy with Khadka’s mannerisms at the Pokhara event.

The programme looked like a factional event, Guru Ghimire, another leader close to Shekhar Koirala, said. “This event has turned out to be a joke.”

He also called upon senior party leaders to speak out against such unilateral action. “Such an exercise demonstrates their arrogance and leaves room for arbitrariness. Such a tendency will inspire the new generation [leaders] to be anarchist. It is the party of 806,000 active members and it is the failure of party leadership to not be able to take everyone along,” said Ghimire.

Asked why the event had been dominated by the Deuba camp, party spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat offered a somewhat cryptic answer: “It was a kind of one-man show of Purna ji. We were spectators.”

Some other Congress leaders who were invited but not given any role in the three days also expressed their unhappiness with the programme’s planning.

“Only general secretaries and a few leaders spoke. Even the office bearers who were invited had nothing to do there,” said Mahat.