The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has amended its statute to form lower level committees through consensus.
The central committee meeting chaired by President Sher Bahadur Deuba on Sunday has amended the party statute and issued a directive to form committees at tole, ward, rural/municipality and district levels through consensus as the central committee could not decide whether to form interim committees or hold elections at all these levels even in a month.
The party has amended the statute to allow forming consensus committees deeming that two stages of elections within a year may increase bitterness within the party.
The term of Deuba expires in March 2020 and he looks set to extend his term by a year and hold next general convention in 2021. Holding elections for all these lower levels would have meant, the election for general convention would be the second election within a year.
The leaders have yet to agree about provincial committees. Ram Chandra Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula factions have said the center should not hand-pick provincial committees and insist that there should be election for the provincial committees if there is no consensus.
The NC leadership has not prioritized provincial committees for now as they have no role in distribution and renewal of active memberships.
The party currently has organization at rural/municipality level. It should now form organization at 6,743 wards. The party has said it will consider seniority while forming new committees.
The party, that earlier used to form committees for each parliamentary constituency, will now form such committees for both federal and provincial constituencies after adopting the federal structure.
"We will form committees up to the ward level by integrating the existing committees," Deputy General Secretary Prakash Sharan Mahat said. "The central committee will deploy representatives to all the 77 districts."
The party had earlier pledged to form interim structures at all the levels before start of the second stage of the national awareness campaign on September 11. "We will complete committees for federal and provincial constituencies by September 6," Mahat revealed. "We will complete even at other levels by November."
