Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba supporters have said that the party should not go for early General Convention and protested against it.

At a time when the anti-establishment side has been demanding early General Convention to give final shape to the party, the Deuba supporters have defended their party president and raised their voice against it.

It has been learnt that preparations are underway to amend the party statute in the Mahasamiti meeting.

The party structure of the NC is based in 75 districts, 20 constituencies and almost 4,000 local levels.

According to the federal structure of the state, the party’s structure should be based in 77 districts, 165 house of representative and 330 provincial assembly election constituencies.

Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel and former General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula among other leaders have been piling pressure on the party president that  the party should go ahead with the process to hold the 14the General Convention to prepare the party structure soon after amending the statute.

NC Central member Shekhar Koirala had tabled a proposal for holding the General Convention at the earliest.

“Don’t go for early General Convention,” leader Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said in a meeting held on Thursday.

“The party will be weak if the anti-establishment side tries to weaken the party President by digging the same issue,” he added saying that though many leaders had tried not to make Deuba the candidate for Parliamentary Party leader, he won the elections with a huge margin.

“The Deuba faction is still strong in the party. All should carry out an all-out effort to make the party strong rather than going for cheap popularity,” Karki said.

Leader Karki, however, said that it was the mistake of the party for not speaking anything during the blockade imposed by India.

“We should have convinced India to behave with us like a neighbor rather than imposing blockade,” Karki said, adding, “Our weakness and mistake have made Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli popular among the people.”

He claimed that the party leadership is not responsible for the humiliating defeat in the recently concluded elections. “The main reason is the electoral alliance between CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre),” leader Karki said.

“Had the NC forged electoral alliance with the CPN (Maoist Centre), the UML would have faced same thing like we are facing today,” he added. “We could not forge electoral alliance with the CPN (Maoist Centre) after the Bharatpur incident.”

Karki, central member Bishma Angdembe, Mahendra Yadav and Ramesh Rijal had floated their views in the meeting today.

All of them had defended the party leadership and urged all members not to give wind to partisan politics in the party.