NC leaders urge Deuba to come up with official stance Sarin Ghimire Kathmandu , Sept 6 The Nepali Congress dwelled on recent political developments and their intra-party discourse during an informal meeting on Tuesday.

 Leaders close to Ram Chandra Poudel met party President Sher Bahadur Deuba at his residence in Budhanilkantha where, according to those present at the meeting, they discussed the process of implementing the constitution with amendments in accordance to the demands made by Madhesi and Janajati forces, among others, restructuring of local bodies in view of the upcoming local elections which the government has pledged for February-March 2017 and the political understanding between two coalitions-the NC and CPN Maoist (Centre)-to soothe the functioning of the government.

 “In principle, we wanted to come up with an official position regarding the restructuring of local bodies since all parties have to come to consensus as soon as possible if we are to hold local elections within the stipulated time,” NC leader Minendra Rijal told the Post. Though NC leaders have made their views public on the numbers and borders of local level units, the party is yet to come up with an official position. Poudel has recently suggested to go for the polls in the existing structure of village and municipal councils. Some Madhesi leaders of the party have urged the restructuring of village councils keeping in mind the population, while other party leaders have suggested the Local Level Restructuring Commission to take into account the geography while carving out local units.

Deuba has said that the party was open to going to elections under the existing structure due to the diverging views of different political parties, considering the sensitivity of holding polls to move ahead with the process of implementing the statute. Speaking at the three-day meet of the party’s lawmakers and district-level leaders held two weeks ago, a majority of the leaders suggested the restructuring commission to at least double the number of proposed local units to more than 1,000.

The commission has proposed about 565 local units— both in village and municipal councils—across the country under the federal structure. While the main opposition CPN-UML is in favour of the number proposed by the commission, Chairman of the LLRC Balananda Paudel has said that even the proposed 565 local units would be too high given resource crunch. Having been directed to make preparations to hold polls in March, the Election Commission has urged the government to complete the restructuring of the local bodies by mid-October.

Leaders close to Poudel are also said to have urged the party leadership to take into confidence all quarters within the party while nominating office bearers, appointing state ministers and giving a full shape to their central body.

 The party is yet to send its state minister in the government, nominate its vice-president, general secretary and joint-general secretary, central committee members and over 40 central departments.