Municipality presidents of the Nepali Congress have decided to urge the government to work towards holding local level polls by March-April.

A two-day gathering of about 175 municipality presidents of the party ended on Thursday with a 15-point demand paper in which, among other things, they have formulated a tentative plan for local polls and local body restructuring.

The government has announced local level elections in March-April. However, with differences persisting over local level restructuring, uncertainty continues to loom over the government plan. 

The 15-point paper also calls for formation of departments as per the party’s statute to effectively oversee federal states. It states that ward chairman and member candidates during local elections, to be nominated by the ward committee, will have to be finalised by the municipality committee. 

Similarly, mayor and deputy mayor candidates of municipalities will have to be rubber stamped by the district committee of the party. 

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and leaders Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Gopal Man Shrestha among others attended the closing ceremony. Senior party leader Ram Chandra Poudel had inaugurated the gather on Wednesday.