After Nepali Congress General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, along with 54 percent of the party’s general convention delegates, called a special general convention, district working committees have begun issuing appeals welcoming the move and urging participation.
So far, Nepali Congress district presidents including Jitendra Kumar Shrestha (Lalitpur), Kishor Datta Baral (Kaski), Janga Bahadur Lama (Sindhupalchowk), Himal Karki (Udayapur), among others, have issued statements welcoming the special general convention and calling on party members to take part in it.
Party leaders say that more than 30 district presidents within the Nepali Congress are in favor of holding the special general convention.
The special general convention is scheduled to take place on January 11 and 12 at Bhrikuti Mandap in Kathmandu.
Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba and most leaders from the establishment faction have maintained that there is no justification for holding a special general convention.
Leader Shekhar Koirala, however, has urged President Deuba to convert the special general convention into a unification (consensus) convention.
Delegates have already begun arriving in Kathmandu for the special general convention.
On October 15, fifty-four percent of the general convention delegates had submitted their signatures to acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka, demanding a special general convention. However, the subsequent processes including verification of signatures were not moved forward.
According to the party statute, if 40 percent of the general convention delegates demand a special general convention, it must be convened within three months.
After the party president and the central working committee failed to do so, General Secretaries Thapa and Sharma announced the special general convention, stating that it was mandatory under the statute.
