Youth leaders of the Nepali Congress are demanding a greater representation of younger leaders in upper echelons of the party whose leadership is getting increasingly older. The younger generation of leaders is hoping that the upcoming general convention of the party takes up this agenda to revitalise the oldest party.

The party’s apex body is a seven-member office bearers’ team—the president, a senior leader, vice-president, two general secretaries, senior joint general secretary and the treasurer. As the top NC leaders—President Sushil Koirala, 76, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, 69, and Vice-chairman Ram Chandra Poudel, 71—vie for the party presidency, youth leaders are staking a claim for a place in the most powerful committee.

The resolve follows their realisation that Office Bearers is the body that formulates party’s vital policies. From the 12th general convention in 2010, many youth leaders were elected to the Central Working Committee (CWC) but, according to leaders, they failed to influence party policy and decisions.

The meet elected youth leaders such as Gagan Thapa, Mahendra Yadav, Pradeep Poudel, Gururaj Ghimire, Badri Pandey, Dhanaraj Gurung, Mahendra Yadav, Kalyan Kumar Gurung and Sita Gurung in the CWC. There is also a sizeable presence of youth leaders from the party in Parliament. Nepal Youth Policy-2010 defines people in the age group 16-40 as youths.

Thapa said youth leaders are preparing to jointly press the leadership to ensure their representation in the powerful body.

They complained that there is a monopoly of senior leaders in the decision-making process and it is affecting the party organisation. Thapa, a popular leader, is preparing to fight for the general secretary’s post. “I am in consultation for filing my candidacy,” he said.

During the earlier convention, youth leaders had resolved to struggle for running the party in a system by ending the monopoly of a handful of leaders. Though a significant number of young leaders entered the CWC, they failed to make any difference in the way the party is managed. Internal democracy was another agenda of the younger generation.

Instead of making a unified attempt for party transformation, youth leaders also engaged in factionalism. Now, they are said to be seriously working to secure their place in the party nucleus.

“There should be no unhealthy competition among us,” said youth leader Badri Pandey, adding that they would now take ‘measured steps’ in their mission. They plan to support the presidential candidate in the convention who is ready to give them political space. He agreed that the new crop of leaders had committed several mistakes in the past and failed to fulfil their commitments.

The NC leaders think that their main competitor CPN-UML has already ensured the representation of youths at the decision-making level. Yogesh Bhattarai and Ghanshyam Bhusal hold crucial posts in the UML. The third largest party, UCPN (Maoist) is also inducting promising young leaders to the Office Bearers.