Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretary Gagan Thapa has said that the anti-establishment faction should try to change the parliamentary party leader as early as possible.
Speaking in the meeting of Shekhar Koirala faction in Battis Putali on Wednesday, Thapa has stressed that efforts should be made to soon change the parliamentary party leader to ensure that the 15th general convention would be held within the next two years.
Thapa has opined that the general convention would be pushed later if NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also the parliamentary party leader, were to be allowed to become prime minister (PM) as per the agreement in the ruling coalition to take turns as PM, according to a central member who attended the meeting.
“Let’s change the parliamentary party leader as soon as possible. Anybody can become the parliamentary party leader. We can also move forward making Shekhar Koirala the parliamentary party leader if we all agree,” the central member quoted Thapa as saying.
Thapa had lost the election for NC parliamentary party leader held on December 21, 2022 to Deuba.
Thapa did not receive all the votes from the Koirala faction in the election that led to deterioration in relation between Thapa and Koirala in recent times despite contesting the last general convention from the same panel.
Koirala had lost the runoff for president to Sher Bahadur Deuba in the last general convention but Thapa was elected general secretary from Koirala’s faction.
But the relation between Koirala and Thapa deteriorated further with the latter unhappy with Koirala for not consulting him while sending ministers to the federal government and making Kedar Karki chief minister of Koshi with support of CPN-UML.
The leaders in the Koirala faction have made efforts to bring Koirala and Thapa together to better challenge the Deuba faction in the grand old party. Thapa consequently attended the meeting of Koirala faction on Wednesday.
