As the blame game continues in the Nepali Congress over its worst ever showing in the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly elections, party President Sher Bahadur Deuba drew a lot of flak from leaders at the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Thursday.

The main charges levelled against Deuba were breaching the party statute, distributing election tickets arbitrarily, failing to exercise intra-party democracy, and not following the due decision-making process—reasons deemed to have caused the party’s humiliating defeat in the two crucial polls. Congress leaders were also critical of Deuba for his “unilateral” decisions.

As the meeting started, Deuba presented the upcoming National Assembly election as the main agenda, pledging to hold another CWC meeting to review the party’s poll debacle. Despite the ruling, a majority of leaders who spoke on Thursday talked about the poor election results and the probable reasons.

Senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel, who has been a vocal critic of Deuba, demanded scrapping of the party structures formed against the NC statute. “The party must be run as provisioned in its statute. All the key decisions must be taken by the party’s official bodies,” Poudel told the meeting.

“I’m ready for self-criticism of my past mistakes. We must transform the party leadership by rectifying mistakes and promising not to repeat them in the future,” CWC member Nabindra Raj Joshi quoted Poudel as telling the meeting.

CWC member Arjun Narsingh KC protested over the decision making process in the party. “I’m a member of the Parliamentary Board and the Central Executive Committee but I did not get to see the final list of proportional representation candidates of the party,” KC told the meeting, holding the party leadership responsible for the electoral rout.

CWC member Joshi stressed the need for leadership transformation. “Factional politics should come to an end and the party ideology revamped,” he said.

Leaders close to Deuba, however, defended the party leadership saying that it was an achievement of the NC to hold the elections crucial for implementing the constitution adopted two years ago. They were of the view that the CWC must thank Deuba for holding the elections.

“We lost the elections due to the left alliance but it is the party’s success to take leadership of the constitution implementation process,” said CWC member Mahendra Yadav, who is close to Deuba.

Responding to the demands of youth leaders, Deuba said he was ready to call another meeting of the Central Working Committee and a Mahasamiti gathering to review the poll results. Deuba plans to hold the next CWC meeting after the National Assembly (NA) elections scheduled for February 7.

“The Mahasamiti will meet in the near future to take decisions related to the party’s organisational structure in the federal set-up,” Deuba reportedly told the meeting. He said the party statute needed amendments to reshape the NC in line with the country’s federal structure.

The CWC meeting also discussed the party’s strategy and candidates for the NA elections. Those present suggested fielding senior leaders in the race.