Nepal Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has become a little flexible in increasing the number of office-bearers.
The Deuba faction and that of senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel have long had disagreements on increasing the number of office-bearers. The Paudel faction has been demanding that the total number of office-bearers be raised to 11 while Deuba was insisting it should not be increased. There are currently only five office-bearers in the party including president.
Deuba, now, has agreed for increasing the number to eight and keep a president, two vice-presidents, two general secretaries, two deputy general secretaries and one treasurer.
Deuba has displayed flexibility to increase the number of office-bearers in the discussion held Sunday evening. But he is adamant that the number of those elected directly by the general convention should be limited to five.
“President has proposed that only five of the eight office-bearers--the president, one vice-president, one general secretary, one deputy general secretary and the treasurer—should be elected directly,” NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi told Setopati. “He opines that the remaining three--one vice-president, one general secretary and one deputy general secretary—should be elected by the central committee.”
The Paudel faction had delegated the responsibility of dialogue for the number of office-bearers to Arjun Narsingh KC. KC said the faction can discuss on the number of office-bearers being limited to eight but opined that all of them should be elected directly.
The dispute about the number of office-bearers, however, has yet to be resolved. “We have held lengthy discussion.
We will discuss it in the central committee meeting Monday morning and decide on it,” Nidhi revealed.