An impeachment motion against Lokman Singh Karki, which was moved without the participation of the Nepali Congress, has made the largest force in Parliament a divided house, and the Congress party is still hemming and hawing over the next move.

While pressure is building up on the party leadership to support the impeachment motion without any reservations, the NC is struggling to come up with a clear position just as the motion was tabled in Parliament on Sunday.

Of the 22 leaders who spoke during the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday, majority of them aired their views against Karki but said the party “does not need to take a decision right away” as the impeachment process will continue for over a month.

On Wednesday evening, 157 lawmakers from the governing CPN (Maoist Centre) and the main opposition CPN-UML registered the impeachment motion against Karki at the Parliament Secretariat.

Karki remains suspended as the chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

The NC has maintained it was not consulted before the motion was registered. And it has become a major cause of discontent in the party.

According to sources, three different views have emerged in the Congress party. A section of NC leaders is out and out against the impeachment motion, while there are some leaders who say Karki must be impeached. And the third group is making a pitch for buying time and taking a decision only after Karki clarifies his position at the impeachment recommendation committee (IRC) of Parliament. As per existing rules, once the motion lands at the IRC, it will summon Karki to allow him an opportunity to defend himself. But, the person is question can skip the summons if s/he wishes so.

Sources, however, say despite differences of opinion in the Congress, the party will decide to stand in favour of the impeachment motion, at least for now, and ask the top leadership to hold talks with Maoist Centre and UML leaders on why the largest party in Parliament was not consulted before the impeachment motion was registered, said sources.

A House meeting called for 3pm Tuesday is set to start discussion on the impeachment motion and given the urgency, sources said, party President Sher Bahadur Deuba is under tremendous pressure to take a clear decision. The NC has called its CWC meeting at 8am on Tuesday.

Deuba knows, and is well aware of, how the impeachment process began and how the entire episode has evolved into becoming a precedent-setting incident, said NC leader Minendra Rijal.

“So we have to take a decision once the impeachment recommendation committee comes up with its report. We have to uphold the process for our sanity,” he said in the meeting.

Some NC leaders have demanded that the party call a Parliament Party meeting to take a call on the impeachment motion.

“We, the parliamentarians, need to speak in the House. So we need clear instructions from the party,” said NC lawmaker Ram Hari Khatiwada.