 |
Kathmandu Friday August 11, 2000 Sharawan 27, 2057.
|
CWC meet postponed as Bhattarai abstains
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, Aug 10 - The Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Nepali
Congress (NC) today met briefly but was forced to postpone after some key members did not
show up.
The emergency meeting had been called to discuss the recent development in
the party arising from the signature campaign against Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
that led to dismissal of Khum Bahadur Khadka from the cabinet.
The meeting scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. at the prime minister's official
residence at Baluwatar started much later.
Senior party leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the key figure in the campaign
against Koirala, was not present in the meeting along with Khadka.
"Since the meeting was called to discuss the issues and points raised by
Bhattarai, it was not useful to hold the meeting in his absence so we have decided to ask
him to be present on Friday," NC Spokesman Narhari Acharya told reporters after the
meeting.
The meeting also appointed Yog Prasad Upadhyay, Basu Risal, Finance Minister
Mahesh Acharya and Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat to pursuade
Bhattarai to come for the meeting.
"The issues raised by Bhattarai verbally and through the press needs to
be discussed and that can only be done with his participation," Acharya said.
However, Bhattarai told the people assigned to pursuade him to join the CWC
meet that he would not participate unless Koirala gave him a reply on the five points
raised.
The meeting instead concentrated on the prime minister's visit to India,
where Koirala briefed the members about the trip and achievements.
Since the beginning of this week, some NC lawmakers have rebelled against
Koirala and begun a signature campaign against him demanding that he either let go of the
premiership or the party presidentship.
The rebels want Koirala to resign as the party president and appoint former
prime minister and Bhattarai supporter Sher Bahadur Deuba as the acting president.
They also want a "full fledged" reshuffle of the Central Working
Committee (CWC), the party's apex body, reshuffling of the cabinet and a new government
formed in consultation with Bhattarai and Deuba which means including equal number of
people from the rebel camp and postpone the party's general convention scheduled for
November.
The intra-party feud had taken a turn after Koirala sacked Khum Bahadur
Khadka who was the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Physical Planning that had
further sparked trouble in the party.
Khadka was leading the pack of rebel NC lawmakers who have been collecting
signatures from NC lawmakers on a petition demanding that Koirala opt for only one
position and the party presidentship should be passed on to the second generation leaders
in the party.
Other Stories
|
