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Nepali Congress is one again

Five years after its split, the Nepali Congress became a single party again on Tuesday as NC president Girija Prasad Koirala and NC (Democratic) president Sher Bahadur Deuba jointly announced the unification of the two parties.

Koirala and Deuba exchanged the note of unification at a joint meeting of the Mahasamiti of the two parties held at Congress party office in Sanepa, Lalitpur, in the afternoon.

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the only surviving founding member of the NC, was also present at the unification ceremony. Bhattarai said he was not with any of the two parties since the split.

Addressing the unification ceremony, president Koirala urged the party leaders and the activists to work for building 'new Nepal' and holding the constituent assembly elections on time.

"This is a historic moment," proclaimed Koirala, who will retain the presidency of the unified Congress party.

Deuba said the unification was meant to address the spirit and sentiments of the party workers as well as the national political scenario. He also urged the party workers to give up past bitterness.

Both Koirala and Deuba expressed commitment to keep the party unity and discourage all kinds of attempts to divide the party again.

The unification came after four months of tiresome deliberations between the taskforces of the two parties and the top leaderships.

Bhattarai and Deuba will be second and third in the NC hierarchy respectively, but will not hold any party portfolio. Sushil Koirala has been appointed acting president while Gopal Man Shrestha and Prakash Man Singh have been retained as vice-presidents.

The NC will have four general secretaries - Ram Chandra Poudel, KB Gurung, Bimalendra Nidhi and Dr Ram Baran Yadav – and a 64-member central working committee in which a few more members will be appointed by Koirala and Deuba later on. All CWC members of both the parties will be in the new CWC.

Koriala is learnt to have told the party leaders that he would not hold party presidency or any state position after the election to constituent assembly polls.

Meanwhile, as per the decision reached in the unity agreement, the leadership of the district committees of 40 districts will go to NC leaders while in 35 districts, the NC-D will get to lead the committees.

On the other hand, the leadership of Nepal Students Union, Nepal Women Association, Ex-army wing will go to NC whereas Tarun Dal, janajati and Dalit wings will be led by NC-D members. nepalnews.com mk/ia/sd Sep 25 07

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