The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has failed to reach a consensus on amending the party charter after a series of meetings among top leaders ended inconclusively on Monday.

A meeting of senior party officials at Parliamentary Party Office in Singha Durbar on Monday evening failed to reach a consensus on the number of office bearers to be elected by the General Convention and nominated by the party president.

With the party failing to find a common ground on the matter, the Mahasamiti meeting, which is supposed to conclude on Tuesday, could extend for one more day now.

“As today’s meetings failed to reach a consensus, we have decided to sit again on Tuesday morning,” said NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC.

The two rival factions of the party had agreed to increase the number of office bearers to eight—party president, two vice presidents, two general secretaries, two joint general secretaries and one treasurer—from the current six, disputes remain over how many of them will be elected and how many will be nominated by the party president.

The amended party charter, drafted by a committee under party General Secretary Purna Bahadur Khadka, first needs to be endorsed from the Central Working Committee which will then table at a Mahasamiti meeting for its final approval.

“We have discussed several alternatives but how many seats at office bearers should be nominated by the party president has been the bone contention. I have put my opinion at the meeting that all office bearers should be elected,” said KC.

Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Vice President Bimalendra Nidhi, General Secretaries Shashank Koirala, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Treasurer Sita Devi Yadav, Joint General Secretary Prakash Sharan Mahat and senior leaders Krishna Prasad Situala, Prakash Man Singh, Minendra Rijal, and KC, among others, were present at the meeting that lasted for hours.

The Ram Chandra Poudel faction has batted for holding elections for all the office bearers but the establishment faction under Deuba is in favour of empowering the party president to nominate at least one vice president, general secretary, joint general secretary each and the treasurer.

Some leaders said they would try to forge a consensus on the issue before taking it to the Mahasamiti meeting. However, they added the Mahasamiti meeting might have to settle the dispute through voting.