Withdraw call gets more strident

KATHMANDU, SEP 26 -
The Deuba faction in the Nepali Congress (NC) is impatiently waiting for the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) to take final shape so that it can raise some “important” questions and also possibly including challenge the continuation of Ram Chandra Poudel’s candidacy in the ongoing prime ministerial polls.

Leaders close to Sher Bahadur Deuba said that they would first ask the leadership to justify the party’s stand in continuing with the prime ministerial election even after the UCPN (Maoist)’s official withdrawal from the race. Newly elected party President Sushil Koirala and Poudel have reiterated that the party will not pull out of the “legitimate Parliamentary process”, whatever the Maoist stand.

Of late, after Sushil’s victory in the party’s presidential election, the Deuba faction whose leader Deuba had proposed Poudel’s candidacy from the party, has undergone a change of heart arguing that the party should stop fighting the “endless battle” and start new efforts to find a “political solution” to end the poll deadlock.

The new stand, according to party insiders, is the manifestation of the Deuba faction’s displeasure over what it calls a betrayal of a Gentleman’s Agreement reached between Deuba and Poudel before the latter was nominated NC’s prime ministerial candidate.

In the verbal agreement, Poudel is said to have committed to either support the Deuba panel or stay neutral in the election in exchange for Deuba’s support for his candidacy. However, to Deuba’s utter dismay, Poudel supported the Sushil panel during the election. Though both Deuba and Poudel were contenders from the party for the prime ministerial nomination, reportedly Deuba himself had proposed Poudel’s candidacy following the verbal agreement.

The second question the Deuba faction is prepared to raise at the party’s CWC is about the alleged intervention by President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav in the party’s 12th General Convention.

“We have information that the president abused his power to garner votes for Sushil’s panel,” said an NC leader close to Deuba. “We will raise this issue in the first meeting of the CWC.”

The Deuba faction claims that the president, a former NC leader close to the Koiralas, got actively involved in gathering the Madhesi constituencies’ votes for the Sushil panel. Deuba supporters believe the president’s activism led to the defeat of their panel, including that of an influential leader from the Madhes like Bimelendra Nidhi.

Party insiders say how the NC establishment faction handles these questions would have implications for not only the current political deadlock, but also for the party’s effort to narrow down the internal division. “There could be some understanding, especially on the prime ministerial candidacy, but it all depends on how Sushil responds,” said a Deuba confident.