Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, and other leaders including Pradeep Paudel have met at Budhanilkantha on Monday.
The meeting held at the residence of NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC mainly discussed internal politics in the grand old party, performance of the coalition government also including NC, and investigation of corruption and other scams.
The meeting of anti-establishment faction, however, did not feature Shekhar Koirala, who had lost the runoff for president to Sher Bahadur Deuba in the last general convention, apparently because he was out of Kathmandu Valley.
The leaders discussed how the Deuba faction was trying to bully others around while filling party departments and sister organizations, picking ministers and making appointments in the parliamentary party.
The anti-Deuba faction has not held separate meeting for a long time and many had accused Koirala of getting close to Deuba and not holding one in connivance with Deuba.
The meeting at KC’s residence has also decided to continue collective discussion with Koirala to make the anti-Deuba camp stronger in the next general convention by the end of 2025.
Deuba cannot seek another term but who he will field as the presidential candidate from his faction has yet to be revealed. Vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka is currently the senior most leader in the Deuba faction but here are speculations that Deuba may field Shashak Koirala, son of NC founder BP Koirala, as the candidate for president from his faction.
The meeting also discussed performance of the coalition government, especially the ministers representing NC in the Pushpa Kamal Dahal government.
It discussed how the government has been taking up corruption cases but not concluding them holding thorough investigation. The leaders stressed that they should demand for fair investigation against those involved in the cases, and the guilty be punished as per the law irrespective of their political allegiance.
