Nepali Congress, the largest party in the dissolved House of Representatives, has found itself in a pickle as two competing factions have proposed two different dates to hold the party’s 15th general convention.

This tug of war inside one of the country’s oldest political parties comes at a time when the Gen Z uprising has forced it to make changes in its leadership and go for overall transformation.

For almost one month, the party has been debating whether to hold a special convention or a regular one—and whether to convene it before the March 5 parliamentary elections or after it.

Two rival factions—one led by party President Sher Bahadur Deuba and another by general secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma and senior leader Shekhar Koirala—have proposed two different dates to convene the general convention date, intensifying friction inside the party, said Congress leaders.

Amid this, the Deuba-led establishment faction on Monday called a gathering of its faction and discussed various issues including the date of upcoming general convention, said Guru Baral, a central working committee member.

In the meeting, leaders from the establishment faction proposed the upcoming 14th convention be held from May 8 to 11.

“I will propose the date on behalf of our group at Tuesday's central working committee meeting,” said Baral, adding that the committee has not received any other timetable to hold the convention.

But Thapa and Sharma have accused the other side of not allowing them to present the timetable in the ongoing central working committee meeting. Sharma has proposed the convention be held in the last week of December and Thapa in mid-December.

The Deuba faction is now led by Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka. However, the rival faction wants to change the party’s leadership ahead of national polls stating that terms of all elected party bodies expire by mid-December.

Leaders from the rival camp have been insisting that either a regular convention or, if that is not possible, a special general convention must be convened before the parliamentary elections.

They have already submitted signatures from 54 percent of the general convention representatives to acting party chief Khadka demanding a special convention by mid-December.

Leader Pradip Paudel says that holding the general convention before the polls would render the message that the party is attempting to embrace the agenda of the Gen Z movement. “Hosting a pre-poll convention would be an opportunity to gain the people’s support in the election,” he said.

The establishment faction’s meeting also decided to renew and distribute active party memberships by late December, to launch a door-to-door campaign at all levels, and run an awareness campaign for the parliamentary elections.

Because the two factions could not reach an agreement on the proposal to be presented to the central committee, the meetings scheduled for last Friday and Sunday were postponed. The meeting has now been rescheduled for Tuesday.

As both factions have prepared their respective agendas to be presented at the meeting, it appears that proposals from both the sides will be tabled at Tuesday’s meeting.

Earlier in the morning, a meeting of senior party leaders ended without any conclusion after both sides stuck to their guns.

The party’s Central Executive Committee members gathered for an informal discussion in an attempt to reach a consensus. However, according to one leader, no agreement was reached at that meeting either.

As a result, two separate schedules regarding the general convention will be presented at Tuesday’s central committee meeting. General Secretary Thapa is preparing to propose a schedule to hold the party’s 15th general convention before the national election, while the establishment faction will propose to hold it in the first week of May.

Party spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat said that discussions in the central committee meeting should now continue without interruption. He said that as all central members have already expressed their views, the next sitting should reach some form of conclusion.