Nepali Congress passes statute expanding panel to 297 members as Deuba fights in court

Nepali Congress passed an amended statute on Monday, October 5, expanding its central working committee to 297 members, party spokesperson Devraj Chalise told reporters after the closed session at Khulamanch in Kathmandu. The same session, part of the party's 15th General Convention, approved party president Gagan Thapa's 46 page political report.

Nepali Congress has been one of Nepal's main parties for decades. Who sits on this committee, and whether its leader holds office legally, decides who speaks for that party.

The new committee will have one president, one senior vice president and four vice presidents, one of whom must be a woman, Chalise said. It will also have three general secretaries, one reserved for a woman, 15 joint general secretaries, a treasurer drawn from the central members, a spokesperson and a joint spokesperson. Of 45 open category seats, 15 are reserved for women. Each province gets four seats, including one woman, and Kathmandu Valley gets two.

Thapa's political report calls for what the Kathmandu Post described as a 21st century reinterpretation of nationalism, democracy and democratic socialism, linking nationalism to the country's capacity in energy, food, technology, finance and knowledge. Three party leaders, Chalise, Chandra Bhandari and Vinod Chaudhary, separately announced vice presidential candidacies this week, Nepal Press, Setopati and Ratopati reported. Chalise, who announced the committee's structure as party spokesperson, is himself one of those vice presidential candidates, DC Nepal and Setopati reported.

What the coverage missed

The statute and the report both rest on a leadership whose legitimacy the Supreme Court, Nepal's top court, has not finally settled. The Election Commission, the body that oversees party registration, recognized Thapa as party president on January 16 after a special convention, and the Supreme Court upheld that recognition on April 17, the Kathmandu Post reported. But the court allowed a review of that ruling on August 6, and on August 27 a three member bench declined a request from former party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and former acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka to halt the 15th General Convention while the review continues, Spotlight Nepal reported. Deuba's faction is running its own ward level convention process and plans a rival central convention, an explainer by Nepalnews reported. Two other senior leaders, Khadka and Shekhar Koirala, are staying away from both the convention Thapa is running and the one Deuba is planning, the same Nepalnews explainer reported.

The enlarged committee has not eased the scramble for seats. Thapa told the closed session on Monday that more than 1,500 people had obtained clearance letters from the party's central office to stand as candidates, English Ratopati reported. That is more than five aspirants for every one of the 297 seats.

The political report's ideology may also offer less change than its length suggests. OnlineKhabar's Nepali language commentary noted that Thapa signaled a departure from democratic socialism five years ago, but the 46 page document he presented restates the party's traditional formula rather than breaking from it.

What we still do not know

Whether the Supreme Court's review has a hearing date, and what happens to Monday's votes if the review goes against Thapa's leadership, a question for the Supreme Court registrar's office or Chalise.

What specifically keeps Khadka and Shekhar Koirala away from both convention tracks, and whether either plans further legal action, a question for the two leaders themselves.

How the party's internal clearance committee will narrow more than 1,500 aspirants down to the 297 seats, and whether Thapa aligned candidates are favored, a question for that committee.