Congress organisation structure to be attuned to federal shape

The Nepali Congress has started homework to restructure the party in view of the country going federal after the adoption of the new constitution. The party is preparing to form its organisation in the seven federal states.

However, according to leaders, there will not be a complete overhaul of the party organisation immediately. Work towards that end will begin during the 13th General Convention while the next convention will complete the mission. The NC is the first party that will hold its convention in the new political set-up.

The convention scheduled to be held in March will take a final decision on the party’s new organisational structure. As party President Sushil Koirala and senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba are at odds over the number of office bearers, amending the party statute in the spirit of the federal structure has become a contentious issue.

Some have advised increasing the number of general secretaries and assigning them the responsibility of organisation in each federal state.

But there is no agreement on the idea. NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel said in an interview earlier this week that there were calls to have two vice-presidents and seven general secretaries.
Currently, the party has two general secretaries—one elected and the other appointed by the president.
NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC said the party structures should be attuned to the
federal shape for an effective organisation. “Discussions are going on in the party but we have not reached a conclusion,” said KC.

KC said the convention should appoint heads for the seven states and they should be elected directly by the convention representatives. He is for making the party’s local committees effective and transparent.

According to leaders, there has already been an agreement among the top leaders to elect two Central Working Committee members from each federal unit.

Earlier, there was a provision of electing one CWC member from each zone.
The zonal structure is now irrelevant. According to leaders, it is not possible to make changes in the district, municipality and village committees due to the time constraints. The dispute between the Koirala and Deuba factions regarding the changes has also created problems.

“Federalism has not been truly implemented. So there won’t be drastic changes in the party organisation,” said Ram Hari Khatiwada, a leader close to Deuba.

Rival faction leaders allege that the Koirala group is trying to manage the aspirations of senior leaders from the establishment camp in the name of making the party “federal-friendly”. Khatiwada said another convention will take decisions regarding federalism.