The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) has decided to retain its presidium system even after its upcoming general convention.

A Central Secretariat meeting of the RJP-N agreed on a provision to keep the party’s presidium intact even after amending the party statute. The party plans to endorse the statute during the party convention slated for April 19-22, 2019. A political committee meeting of the RJP-N had proposed a chairman system by dissolving the presidium.

The RJP-N, which submitted its amended statute to the Election Commission recently, has a provision to retain the presidium system even after the general convention. Apart from the presidium members, the provision to retain such a system in the party statute has drawn sharp criticism from the majority members of the party’s political and central committees.

Most of the office bearers and members, including Vice-chairman Brishesh Chandra Lal and General Secretary Keshav Jha, have been demanding that the elected central committees run the party by dissolving the RJP-N presidium after the general convention. The RJP-N was formed after the merger of six Madhes-based parties on April 20, 2017.

According to the agreement, the unified party will be run on the basis of collective leadership with a presidium system whereby chairpersons of all six parties will rotate the party presidency. Mahantha Thakur, Rajendra Mahato, Mahendra Raya Yadav, Sharat Singh Bhandari, and Anil Kumar Jha are on the presidium. The RJP-N has intensified preparations for the general convention.