Nepali Congress (NC) will hold local convention from September 3 as scheduled.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Senior Leader Ram Chandra Paudel have agreed to resolve the disputes about active membership and publish the list of active members to break the relay hunger strike of district presidents and youth leaders and create an environment to hold general convention on time.
Paudel revealed the agreement reached with Deuba during the meeting with leaders of his faction. Former general secretary Prakash Man Singh told Setopati that the top leaders have agreed to hold election at all 6,743 wards on the same day on September 3.
The disputes about active membership in 100 wards of six districts including Bara and Saptari had led to postponement of the party's general convention to November.
The 14th general convention scheduled to be held from September 1-4 will now be held from November 25-29. The ward level election, that was scheduled to be held on July 27, will now be held on September 3.
The party's 14th general convention looked uncertain due to the disputes about active membership in districts including Bara and Saptari. The party had scheduled to hold the general convention from September 1-4 with many NC leaders warning that the party may lose legal status if the general convention were not held in September.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, whose four-year term expired in March 2020, had given himself a one-year term extension which meant his term expired on March 3, 2021. The party had also decided to hold the next general convention from February 19-22, 2021. But it could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NC delayed the general convention further postponing it to September taking help from the Constitution which has a provision of a six-month extension for parties in special circumstances. "Provided that in case election of the office bearers could not be held within five years due to situation arising out of special circumstance, there shall be no hindrance to make provision in the statute of a political party to hold such election within a period of six months," states the provision in Article 269(4b) of the Constitution related to political parties.
