Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma have decided to wage rebellion against President Sher Bahadur Deuba to transform the party.
Deeming that Deuba is beyond repair they have concluded that transformation of party is no longer possible by convincing Deuba and aggressive pressure is necessary for that.
Thapa and Sharma aggressively attacked Deuba during the meeting of NC office-bearers held at Deuba’s residence in Dhumbarahi on May 5. They complained that Deuba had yet to show interest toward completing party departments that had to be completed within six months of the general convention as per the statute even in over 18 months, and Deuba was not ready to even listen about transformation of the party and review the past mistakes.
They are angry that the grand old party could win just 57 House of Representatives (HoR) seats through the Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system despite allying with four other parties against the wishes of the local cadres and leaders, badly losing the constituency of Tanahun-1 in the by-election held on April 23, and because Deuba is not ready for review despite all that.
“No hopes will remain if even we fail to reform the party,” NC lawmaker Pradip Paudel, who is close to the general secretaries, told Setopati. “It is no longer possible to mend president Deuba. It is necessary to become aggressive. It is necessary to put pressure.”
The general secretaries and other young leaders, who wanted the party to contest the general and local elections on its own, are also unhappy with Deuba for not consulting while sending ministers to the Pushpa Kamal Dahal Cabinet.
The general secretaries—both of whom announced that they did not want to become ministers—wanted to make Joint General Secretaries Jeevan Pariyar and Badri Pandey, and Pradip Paudel—who had contested for general secretary from the Deuba panel in the general convention but is now with the two elected general secretaries—ministers pointing that they were competent and energetic.
Deuba picked six of the nine ministers allotted from the party from his faction, gave two (Dhan Raj Gurung and Dig Bahadur Limbu) to the faction of Shekhar Koirala who lost the runoff for president to him in the last general convention and one (Surendra Raj Acharya) to President Ram Chandra Paudel.
General Secretary Sharma even warned Deuba during the meeting of office-bearers that he would resign from the post and go to the cadres if Deuba did not change his style of functioning.
An office-bearer, who was present during the meeting, said that Sharma—who would always tell Thapa to curb his aggression toward Deuba stating the latter could be cajoled and convinced—was uncharacteristically aggressive that day. “You should either agree for transformation of the party or I would assume responsibility of lawmaker and resign from general secretary. Make a favorable person general secretary,” the office-bearer quoted Sharma as telling Deuba.
After seeing the aggression of general secretaries, Deuba responded by saying that he was ready to move forward together. “I could not include everyone as a few decisions like making ministers had to be done in a haste. I will include the next time,” Deuba stated. “Let’s deliberate how we should move forward now.”
Thapa took to the social media on Sunday to vent his ire on party leadership posting a cryptic status stating it is too much now. His post hinted that he was ready for rebellion against Deuba.
An NC leader stated that the general secretaries seemed to be both angry and disappointed that they failed to convince Deuba to mend his ways. “President seemed to take the general secretaries along and give them responsibilities at times. They seemed to be happy with that,” the leader pointed. “The general secretaries were criticized from inside the party saying their working style would also not be different to that of Deuba when they tried to forge their own group and protect their persons hoping that Deuba would give something.”
The leader claimed that the general secretaries with a proreform image, who are popular even outside the party, seemed to have realized that even their popularity had taken a hit while trying to work together with Deuba.
The leader attributed the frustration of general secretaries to how they were expected to be involved in the decision-making process due to their posts but could not even take ownership of the decisions as Deuba would unilaterally take all the decisions without consulting them. “They cannot say they won’t take responsibility for the party’s activities as they are general secretaries. But they cannot even take responsibility for the decisions that they are not involved in, and can’t even work in accordance to their conscience.”
The leader reasoned that Thapa posted the cryptic status and Sharma threatened to resign after realizing that they could not correct Deuba remaining general secretaries in the party. “The general secretaries have hinted that rebellion is now necessary. They seem to be ready for rebellion against president instead of trying to convince him.”
The general secretaries are preparing to take step for transformation of the party after holding discussion with other leaders and cadres. Younger party leaders have already prepared to convene provincial gatherings in all seven provinces for the campaign of transforming the party that currently has 842,000 active members, according to leader Bhupendra Jung Shahi.
Guru Raj Ghimire has been handed the responsibility to coordinate the gathering in Koshi, Ranjit Karna in Madhesh, Madhu Acharya in Bagmati, Dev Raj Chalise in Gandaki, Govinda Raj Pokharel in Lumbini, Shahi in Karnali, and Bharat Khadka in Far West.
“The general secretaries who are displeased with president Deuba have come together with us for the campaign of transforming party,” one of the seven provincial coordinators told Setoapti. “We will now transform the party.”
