Deuba facing challenges from Koirala camp within the party

After feeling of being cornered by party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and the poor performance of the government, the rival faction led by Dr. Shekhar Koirala presented itself powerfully before the ongoing Central Committee meeting of the party.

The rival faction was irked by the inability of the party president to constitute party departments, which should have been done six months after the general convention, to hold elections of the sister organisation of the party and unilateral appointments in some departments challenged the establishment this time making adequate preparations.

Likewise, the controversy associated with the involvement of unauthorized persons in changing tax rates in the budget and the initiation taken to punish the leaders and cadres close to Koirala in the name of not supporting the official candidates have also provoked the leaders of the Koirala camp to voice strongly against the party leadership.

Before the current CWC meeting, the faction held meetings in Kathmandu. Also, the students close to Koirala demonstrated against Deuba at the party office on Monday.

However, in the meeting, Dr. Koirala put forth his views mentioning the weaknesses of Deuba in running the parties. Moreover, in the Koirala camp, most of the leaders are against an alliance with the communist parties in the election. They said the leadercentric alliance would cause damage to the party. Leaders like Sukra Raj Shama argued that the party has become weaker because of the alliance. Vice president Dhan Raj Gurung and party general secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa are also against the alliance. Even Mohan Bahadur Basnet, a leader loyal to Deuba, challenged to revolt against the alliance in his home district Sindhupalchowk. However, leader Ram Chandra Paudel said that alliance was essential to safeguard the Constitution and democracy.

Likewise, the Koirala faction that had earlier decided not to seek any share in the posts, has now started bargaining for 40 per cent share, stating that the faction received 40 per cent votes in the general convention.

A few leaders like Jiban Pariyar are exerting pressure on Koirala to seek share. Obviously, they raise their voice fearing whether the party will not give them tickets in the election to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies.