Nepali Congress President Gagan Thapa has made a last-resort effort to resolve internal party disputes amid growing pressure from a rival faction. Thapa is simultaneously advancing organizational activities and engaging in dialogue with the rival faction in a final push for unity.
The party establishment faces pressure as a parallel faction, led by former Pre sident Sher Bahadur Deuba, organizes regional gatherings across all seven provinces. This mobilization is viewed as a strategy to pressure the leadership or explore the option of forming a new party. To counter this, Thapa is initiating talks this week with former Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka and leader Shekhar Koirala.
While the Deuba faction weighs the option of splitting, party insiders believe Koirala will remain with the establishment. Thapa's proposal includes designating Khadka and Koirala as senior leaders and accommodating 60 leaders from both the Deuba and Koirala camps within the remaining 73 vacant central working committee (CWC) seats. However, leaders facing public scrutiny, such as former Vice President Dhanraj Gurung, who is embroiled in a cooperative fund controversy, will likely be excluded.
The main point of contention remains the organizational structure. The rival faction demands merging the entire 14th general convention central committee into the current one. Thapa rejects a full merger, fearing it would leave his leadership in a minority position. Meanwhile, the rival faction perceives Vice President Bishwa Prakash Sharma as a major barrier to unity, accusing him of blocking factional power-sharing deals, whereas Sharma’s allies maintain he is simply working to end factionalism.
"There is no consensus on a deal that sends a message of factional power-sharing. If Purna Dai and Shekhar Dai are ready to become senior leaders, the President is prepared to bring their close former CWC members into the committee after a careful review," said a Nepali Congress office-bearer.
The establishment faction believes that the provision for a 227-member CWC in the new party statute, passed by the Special General Convention, will make it easier to resolve the dispute.
While Nepali Congress previously had eight Joint General Secretaries, the Special General Convention has introduced a provision to add three more. With the statute amendment, the number of office-bearers has been increased from 14 to 17. The Special General Convention elected a 134-member Central Working Committee, and President Thapa nominated 19 individuals as CWC members on May 16.
The leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party (PP), Bhishma Raj Angdembe, serves as an ex-officio member. The CWC currently has 154 members, leaving President Thapa with 73 CWC members yet to be nominated. While Umesh Shrestha from the Deuba faction has already been nominated as Treasurer, President Thapa is ready to nominate three more individuals from the rival faction as Joint General Secretaries.
Furthermore, out of the remaining 73 vacant CWC seats, President Thapa is positive about inducting 60 leaders from both the Deuba and Koirala camps into the CWC.
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