Nepali Congress central member and former finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat has appealed to NC leaders to join hands for solving problems plaguing the party.

Talking to journalists in Manthali, the district headquarters of Ramechhap, on Saturday, Mahat stressed that the party leaders should not waste time criticising each other.

“Personally I am not satisfied with the present leadership of the party. But all should work together to solve the party’s internal problems,” said Mahat, adding that it is the chief responsibility of the leadership to return the party to its former glory by managing internal dynamics and ending the anomalies. The NC suffered an electoral defeat due to internal mismanagement, he observed.

Mahat accused Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of trying to lead a totalitarian regime by having a two-thirds majority for the government while his Nepal Communist Party had a clear majority in Parliament. He also criticised PM Oli for the way he had been handling bureaucracy. Objecting to the centralisation of power at the Prime Minister’s Office, Mahat said: “The prime minister’s duty is to manage, not to operate.”

The former minister, however, claimed that the country could achieve prosperity as the annual budget presented by Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada had taken the path beaten by the Nepali Congress in 1991.

Mahat had reached Ramechhap to attend a programme organised by a faction of the party. Some district leaders of the party did not show up at the event.