Most leaders in the political committee of Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) have vehemently criticised the presidium and have demanded its dissolution.

On the second day of the meeting of its political committee, almost all the party leaders airing their views had vehemently criticised the role of presidium claiming that the system of collective leadership has miserably failed and the party needs to adopt single leader.

Three of the six leaders in the presidium- Anil Kumar Jha, Rajendra Mahato and Mahendra Raya Yadav had presented separate drafts of the party’s statute with continuation of the existing presidium system that was for interim provision.

Some leaders today proposed the party should go ahead with the national convention under the leadership of presidium coordinator Mahantha Thakur as chair of the convention organising committee.

On Monday, leader Rajendra Mahato had proposed in his draft of party statute that the political committee should handle the major issues in which the presidium failed to decide in consensus.

Leaders including joint-chair Laxman Lal Karna, senior leader Ram Naresh Raya Yadav, senior vice-chairpersons Sarbendra Nath Shukla and Brikhesh Chandra Lal, general secretary Manish Suman and Narsingh Chaudhary had proposed the leadership to form a separate statute drafting committee.

“Party’s statute should be drafted by forming a statute drafting committee with the provision of one chairman,” senior vice-chairman Brikhesh Lal Karna told the meeting.

All leaders who spoke today rejected the three separate drafts of the statutes that were in favour of presidium.

Leaders claimed that the presidium system has failed. It could not take timely decisions for the party and voice party’s opinion on crucial national issues besides failing to run the party properly.

Due to the conflict among leaders, the party has failed to elect the parliamentary party leader that the leaders said was ‘shameful’.

Some leaders even claimed that leaders in the presidium were fighting for the PP leader position, but that should be decided unanimously based on seniority.

“The leaders in the presidium only focused on distributing the opportunities among them,” a senior leader told the meeting citing the ‘unfair’ distribution of election tickets to their near and dear ones especially on proportional representation system.

Leaders also urged the leadership to form a mechanism to run the provincial and local governments as they have been working without consulting with the party, as there is no mechanism to deal with them. The meeting resumes on Wednesday morning.