Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa has proposed holding the party’s 15th general convention from December 13 to 15. He presented the proposal at the central working committee meeting on Friday, amid discussion in the party on replacing its leadership following the Gen Z uprising.

However, the party’s establishment faction, now led by acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka, has not agreed to discuss the timeframe proposed by Thapa. The establishment faction wants to hold the convention only after the national elections scheduled for March 5, 2026. But Thapa, along with the other general secretary, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, and senior party leader Shekhar Koirala, among others, insists that the convention must be held no later than mid-December given the unusual circumstances in the country.

Thapa initially presented the proposal at the party's work execution committee on Wednesday. The proposal will be discussed in the ongoing central working committee meeting. Following the Gen Z movement, discussions and deliberations are going on inside the Congress to elect new party leadership.

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba earlier this week handed over the baton to party’s vice president Khadka. Now as the acting president, Khadka is chairing the party’s central working committee meeting ongoing at the party headquarters in Sanepa, Lalitpur.

Thapa, in his proposal, has suggested concluding the distribution of party membership by November 7. His proposal includes distributing new membership in all wards with the aim of providing active membership to the younger generation and Gen Z.

The deadline for submitting the list of active members to the election committee in each district is set for November 23. The party has multiple approval layers for active membership, which determines eligibility as primary voters.

According to the proposal, Thapa has proposed concluding ward conventions by November 21; party conventions in rural/municipal, sub-metropolitan, and metropolitan levels by November 24; provincial assembly constituencies by November 28; party conventions for parliamentary constituencies, central convention representative selection, and Jana Sampark Samiti (party’s sister organisation outside the country) by December 1.

Thapa also proposed holding district conventions by December 4, provincial conventions by December 7 and the central convention on December 13–15.

Regarding membership renewal, Thapa has proposed that all active members from the 14th general convention—except those who died or quit the party—be considered automatically renewed. Thapa also proposed amending the party statute to allow leadership selection directly from active members.

Considering time constraints for membership processing and completing conventions at all levels, Thapa has proposed the option of holding the 15th general convention by December last week by amending the party charter. If consensus cannot be reached even on this, Thapa stated that a special general convention would be necessary.

According to the Congress, as many as 81 percent of the party members had renewed their memberships by mid-October. However, the details of the renewed members have yet to be registered into the main database. So far, 60 districts have completed the renewal process.

Thapa, Sharma, and Koirala are in favour of holding the general convention by mid-December. The current term and mandate of the elected bodies from the centre to the ward level expires in mid-December.

Since the 14th general convention was held on December 21, 2021, the schedule for the 15th convention may be revised if practical difficulties arise. However, all preparations must be completed by December 22.