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Kathmandu Thursday January 18, 2001 Magh 05, 2057.
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Stage
set for leadership battle
By Binaj Gurubacharya
POKHARA, Jan 17 The cavalry has arrived and the
battle is all set to begin. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his rivals in the
party — Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba — flew into town today,
two days before the 10th General Convention of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC).
Bhattarai and Deuba, who arrived 10 minutes
before Koirala at the airport waited for the Prime Minister and then emerged out of the
airport to a huge waiting crowd that waived the red-white NC flag and presented the VIPs
with bouquets and garlands. On Friday, the 1,477 Convention members of the party will
begin the meet that will elect the party president and half the members of the Central
Working Committee (CWC).
Koirala and Deuba are contesting for the party
president as their supporters in the party gear up to contest for the positions in the
CWC, the apex body in the party. Koirala denied reports that he or his supporters would
form a panel of candidates to contest the 18 seats in CWC. "In this situation it
would not be appropriate or right to form a panel," Koirala told reporters refusing
to elaborate.
The CWC last week had endorsed a proposal to
amend the party’s Constitution that would allow half the CWC members to be elected
while the other half will be nominated by the party president. In the past, only five CWC
members were elected while majority of them were nominated.
Deuba would not comment clearly on the panel
issue either. "I can’t say anything right now. However, I will decide only after
consulting with my colleagues," Deuba said. "I fully support the provision to
elect the 18 CWC members."
NC General Secretary Sushil Koirala, close
associate of the prime minister, has denied that there would be panels formed but the NC
central office here is abuzz with talks of these "informal panels" that have
been nicknamed panels of the 20th and 21st century. Another close Koirala aide Finance
Minister Mahesh Acharya, too said he did not believe there would be such a panel
established.
"If there are such panels formed it could
lead to accident in the party," Speaker of the House of Representatives, Taranath
Ranabhat said. However, it is no big secret that both sides have begun to spread their
wings among the voters to get their people to the CWC.
"Panels are being secretly formed. These
types of panels have always been formed even since the grass root level election in the
party and it should be no surprise to see it here too," Shailaja Acharya said.
Acharya today called a press conference on the
banks of Phewa Lake and said she would plea at Thursday’s CWC meet to reconsider the
proposal to elect half the CWC members before it goes to vote on the same day.
Though both Koirala and Deuba have supported the
provision to elect half the CWC members, there has been some open protest against the
provision. Following the CWC meet on Thursday morning, this apex body will be dissolved
and a new one elected by the General Convention during its four days of meetings.
"This Convention is a route to transfer the
reign of the party to the younger generation," Koirala said. Asked if there would be
some sort of consensus in the party during the election for the party president, Koirala
refused to comment and pointed towards Deuba.
"He (Koirala) has already given me his
blessings to lead the younger generation," Deuba replied.
Deuba has the backing of Bhattarai,
Koirala’s long time party colleague now turned foe. "My full support is for
Deuba. I have told Girijababu that we should not contest the election and that the
leadership in the party needs to be transferred to the younger generation," Bhattarai
said.
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