Nepali Congress (NC) leader Shekhar Koirala held a meeting of central committee members close to him at Dhulikhel on Tuesday.
Koirala spent 24 hours at Agantuk Resort in Dhulikhel with leaders of the younger generation including Gagan Thapa. Chandra Bhandari, Dhan Raj Gurung, Jeevan Pariyar, Guru Raj Ghimire, Deepak Giri and Badri Pandey discussing the current political situation following the House dissolution on December 20 and the upcoming general convention of the party, according to a party source.
Central member Bhandari said the leaders agreed to remain together in internal politics during the meeting that has been kept secret. Koirala is looking to contest for presidency in the upcoming general convention and is understood to have held the meeting to formulate strategy for that.
"Participants advised Koirala to formally announce his candidacy for president," another leader confided. They argued that support for him will increase once he announces candidacy. "Koirala said he will consider about that," the leader added.
Koirala is thinking about how to convince others who want to stand for the top post including Senior Leader Ram Chandra Paudel, Prakash Man Singh, Arjun Narsingh KC and Bimalendra Nidhi. The participants asked Koirala to talk with all those leaders and convince them. "He said he has been talking with the aspirants and will continue the dialogue."
The leaders advised Koirala to bring even young leaders close to NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba on board.
The meeting concluded that the current party leadership has failed completely. The leaders pointed it has not been able to hold dialogue with the people, do justice to cadres, develop international relations, and it has not moved forward in accordance to democratic norms and values and has compromised for money and positions, and stressed that change in leadership has become necessary.
They also called for the need to explain to the people and cadres about the reasons and actors responsible for the recent political developments, and the need for reform in the party ideology in accordance to the current time.
