Valley
Leaders criticise Deuba for ‘immature’ move
Two dozen Central Working Committee (CWC) members of the Nepali Congress on Friday expressed their displeasure at the party having been “kept in the dark” about the unsuccessful attempt to topple the CPN-UML-led government.Kamal Dev Bhattarai
Two dozen Central Working Committee (CWC) members of the Nepali Congress on Friday expressed their displeasure at the party having been “kept in the dark” about the unsuccessful attempt to topple the CPN-UML-led government.
A secret meeting of the CWC members close to senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel charged that party President Sher Bahadur Deuba “tarnished” the image of the party with his “immature” attempt at a change of guard.
After the meeting, half a dozen leaders met Deuba to voice their dissatisfaction. Treasurer Sita Devi Yadav and Senior leaders Prakash Man Singh and Minendra Rijal reached Deuba’s residence to express their concern.
Rijal said they urged Deuba to hold discussions inside the party before taking any decisions. “There were no big differences with the party president. He responded positively,” Rijal said. Asking Deuba about the recent political developments, the leaders also urged the newly elected chief to run the party in an institutional way.
NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi, a leader close to Deuba who engaged the UCPN (Maoist) and the Madhes-based parties to topple the KP Sharma Oli-led government, however said key NC leaders were informed about the move.
Efforts to overthrow the UML-led government were initiated soon after Deuba was elected the party president two months ago, Nidhi said. Amid dissatisfactions about the performance of the government and the ruling Maoists’ criticism, there were voices within the NC that the party should make efforts to change the government.
“Senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel, Mahesh Acharya and Krishna Prasad Sitaula were informed about the discussions about changing the government,” Nidhi claimed.
The NC’s original plan was to form a government under Deuba. For the purpose, Deuba had assigned Nidhi and Sitaula to take the third largest party into confidence.
Nidhi and Sitaula held several rounds of talks with Dahal on the matter. Besides, there was an informal meeting between Nidhi and Maoist leaders Barsha Man Pun and Krishna Bahadur Mahara.
In the meeting with NC leaders, Maoist leaders had reportedly said the UML was not serious about withdrawing insurgency-era charges so they wanted to unplug their support. Maoist leaders had also said they wanted to break their alliance with the UML, as the party is their competitor. Another argument of the Maoists was that the NC and the Maoists needed to move together to implement the new constitution as partners of the peace process, according to Nidhi.
Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha agreed that they had sought the NC’s support for forming a unity government. “We declined an earlier call by the NC to support their bid to lead the government,” said Shrestha.
Nidhi had tried to get Dahal to support Deuba to form the government. Before Deuba’s visit to India, Dahal and Deuba had discussed the possibility of a change in government.
The two parties were said to have tentatively agreed to rotational leadership of the government. After the agreement, a joint team was tasked with preparing a framework deal between the two parties.