The closed session of Nepali Congress (NC) Mahasamiti began on Friday after the party leaders reached an agreement on the contentious issue of office bearers. In a meeting held earlier in the morning, the party leaders agreed to have seven joint general secretaries—one each representative from seven different ethnic cluster—and hold election for all the posts except treasurer.

With this agreement, there will be 13 office bearers in Nepali Congress including party president, two vice presidents, two general secretaries, seven joint general secretaries and one treasurer.

A meeting of party Central Working Committee (CWC) has been summoned for 2 pm to endorse the agreement.

The party Mahasamiti meeting, initially slated to run for five days, was protracted due to wrangle over the number of party office bearers and selection model—either from election or nomination by party president.

Earlier on Thursday, the Mahasamiti meeting lasted for only one and a half hours as the leaders remained busy throughout the day to settle the issue of office bearers. The party Mahasamiti leaders were loitering around party central office until 4:30 pm yesterday.

Meanwhile, NC Mahasamiti members at the initiatives of district presidents have started a signature campaign demanding to scrap the provision from party statute that automatically makes the Central Working Committee members as general convention representatives. The source said the disgruntled members have also been raising the issue at the Mahasamiti meeting.

They have been stressing on the need to remove the provision of special privilege to Mahasamiti members, general convention representatives and regional representatives to ensure equality among all leaders and cadres of party from lower level to upper level, and strengthen party unity.

They have been insisting on incorporating a provision in the party statute forbidding a person from using reservation quota more than once. Their other demand is candidates for federal parliament election should be picked by federal parliamentary committee, candidate for province assembly should be decided by provincial parliamentary committee and candidates for local level elections should be chosen by district and local parliamentary committee.

After the demands raised by the district presidents were not addressed by statute amendment committee, they are preparing to hand over the signatures to party president on Friday. “We will formally register the proposal at Mahasamiti secretariat once we hand it over to the president. Then we will exert pressure to make the decision from Mahasamiti hall,” said Madhu Acharya, Kavrepalanchok, district president. “We will get it implement under any circumstances.”

The NC Mahasamiti kicked off at party office in Sanepa on Saturday.