Nepali Congress (NC) has not formed the party's parliamentary board that distributes election tickets even as the local election is just a month away.
The party needs to form a 25-strong parliamentary board including 14 office-bearers and 11 nominated by party president within six months of the general convention but leaders argue that the party cannot wait for six months when the local election is just round the corner.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba reportedly has not formed the board as he cannot include a few leaders close to him despite the party discussing about formation of the board in meetings of central and working committees.
Ram Chandra Paudel, Krishna Sitaula, Bimalendra Nidhi, Prakash Man Singh, Shekhar Koirala, Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, Shashank Koirala, Gopal Man Shrestha and Chitra Lekha Yadav are certain to be included among the 11 nominees by Deuba, according to an NC office-bearer.
He will have to pick the remaining two out of Ram Sharan Mahat, Arjun Narsingh KC, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, Bal Krishna Khand, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and NP Saud. Only Mahat and KC among them are from the anti-Deuba camp.
"President doesn't look likely to form the parliamentary board immediately by nominating 11. It seems necessary decisions will be taken through the working committee," the office-bearer added.
The central parliamentary board can distribute tickets only for metropolitan cities in the local election. The party has similar boards at the provincial level to distribute tickets for sub metropolitan cities and municipalities, district level for rual municipalities, and federal election constituency level for wards.
The grand old party's provincial committees, meanwhile, have protested the decision by ruling coalition to decide about candidates in six metropolitan cities and 11 sub metropolitan cities at the central level. The coalition has decided that structures at the district and provincial levels including representatives from the five parties in the coalition will recommend the joint candidates to the center.
Provincial presidents of the party have demanded that the boards formed in all seven provinces be allowed to distribute tickets for sub metropolitan cities as per the party statute. "The provincial parliamentary board should decide about tickets for sub metropolitan cities after holding discussion," Lumbini President of NC Amar Bahadur Pun Magar said.
He claimed that party statute will not be violated while deciding about candidates.
