The Nepali Congress faction led by Ram Chandra Poudel has demanded a meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee immediately to discuss pressing internal and national issues.

Leaders of the faction met at the residence of NC Secretary General Shashank Koirala in Maharajgunj on Saturday. The gathering urged party President Sher Bahadur Deuba to call a meeting of the CWC immediately to discuss matters related to the government’s functioning, party organisation, NC sister organisations and the party’s role in national politics.

“We urged Poudel to submit our concerns to Deuba immediately,” said CWC member Badri Pandey. The Congress central body authorised to take key decisions has not met for more than four months.

Since Deuba’s election as the party president last March, leaders said the party had failed on several fronts. It was unable to provide leadership to national politics, the party organisation was in a mess and anarchy ruled the sister organisations, leaders said at the meeting.

Senior party leaders Poudel, Koirala, Prakash Man Singh, Sita Devi Yadav, Ram Sharan Mahat, Bal Bahadur KC and two dozen other CWC members were present in the gathering. Deuba did not care to run the party democratically and according to the NC charter, they said.

If Deuba carried on with his “unilateral” style, they would be forced to take strong measures, Pandey warned. Discussion was focussed also on the vacancies in the party departments.

According to KC, the factional leaders came down heavily against Deuba for the party’s ambassadorial nominations and the process of naming the inspector general of Nepal Police, saying that the party chief’s unilateral decisions had tarnished the NC’s image.

Some of the sister organisations were sailing against the spirit of the party, he charged. The largest party in Parliament had failed to play a leading role in ending the House obstructions by the opposition parties.

Pandey said they had decided to press Deuba to address complaints from across from country about the Congress-Maoist government’s weak performance and the party’s lacklustre role.

The names suggested by Poudel and Koirala were not considered when the government announced the names of 14 ambassadorial candidates. None of these appointments were discussed in the party, said Pandey.