(Nepali Congress central member and senior leader of the party Bimalendra Nidhi has expressed the view that the party could not go for the general convention, before the Parliamentary election scheduled for March 5, 2025. Talking about general convention before the general election, means undermining the election and avoiding the Parliamentary election would be unfortunate for the country, he pointed out. He also mentioned about giving space to the Gen Z youths in the party and distributing tickets to the new faces so as to address the demands put forth by the Gen Z group. Here are excerpts from an interview with Nidhi.)
Why didn’t the party consider the proposal made by general secretaries Bishwo Prakash Shrama and Gagan Thapa to convene special general convention?
Nidhi: The next General Convention of the Nepali Congress would be held in Mangshir 2083 B.S. if there was no Gen Z movement on September 8 and 9. Both the general secretaries of the NC and party president Sher Bahadur Deuba had agreed to conduct the 15th General Convention of the party in Mangshir next year.
At a time when the party was passing through a crisis due to the Gen Z movement in September in which our party president got seriously injured, the two general secretaries of the party mysteriously floated the idea of conducting Special General Convention.
It is worth recalling here that party president Deuba has already agreed for leadership transfer. There is no provision in our party’s statute for contesting election by Deuba for the party’s presidency for the third term.
It is mysterious that at a time when our party president got seriously injured and many party cadres are feeling insecure the people holding responsible positions in our party took initiative to convene Special General Convention.
The general secretary can directly propose to the central committee of the party for an early General Convention after consulting with the party chief. There are many provisions that can be used for such matter. There is no need to launch signature campaign for convening Special General Convention.
If conducting special general convention leads to crisis then why such a provision is made in the party’s statute?
The government has announced general election for March 5, 2025. In this situation we have only two options: either to prepare for the general election or to go to the court for reinstatement of the Parliament. Our party cadres and leaders hold differing opinions in this regard. However, the two general secretaries have called for participating in the general election during a zoom meeting. As only four months are left to prepare for the general election, it would be suicidal or counter productive for us to go for General Convention before the general election. This also means non-cooperation to the general election.
If the regular convention is not possible the party should choose to conduct special convention. But why don’t you agree to this?
I don’t talk popular things. The central party office operates under the general secretary. It is the duty to issue or renew active membership of the party. There are around 800,000 active members in our party and it is essential to renew their membership for the General Convention. The main question at present is whether to focus or attention to the general election or not. We need to do lots of works relating to preparation for the general election. If we do other works during the Parliamentary election, that means we are undermining the election.
TNW: Your suggestion is that the party should convene its General Convention after the general election?
The party’s convention could be conducted in April, May or June after the general election is over.
If you conduct the general convention after the election then how can the party address the issue relating to reforms in the party and leadership change?
We should start doing reform works gradually from now onward. The improvement is required while distributing ticket for the general election. We can distribute election tickets to the new faces and even the Gen Z group could be included in the party’s rank and file. The candidates must be voters friendly. We should choose those candidates who are popular among the voters.
There are arguments that the party could convene general convention within Mangshir if the party’s pace of functioning can be accelerated. Don’t you think so?
It would be impractical to talk such things. There is no chance of conducting the general convention within a couple of months. We need some minimum time for the preparation.
Don’t you see the possibility of a split in the party organization after the two general secretaries collected signatures for convening a special general convention?
If we try to conduct special general convention forcefully, split in the party may be inevitable. What I want to stress here is that they are already geared up for regular general convention of the party. Now they are talking about conducting the general convention in Mangshir or Push. If we demand general convention before the election, we must decide not to take part in the general election, which will be most unfortunate. It has already become late to prepare for the election. I have talked to Gagan, Bishwo Prakash, Purna Bahadur and Shekhar to take decision on whether to take part in the election, as it is already too late.
