KATHMANDU, May 5: Sher Bahadur Deuba-led faction of the Nepali Congress (NC) on Saturday has boycotted a crucial Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting that was supposed to nominate ministers from the party.
Though party President Sushil Koirala and vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel decided to nominate party General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Surya Man Gurung as ministers from the party, the meeting failed to make four other nominations on ´NC´s share´ as CWC members from the Deuba faction did not turn up at the meeting.
The meeting was held at party President Koirala´s residence at Maharajgunj on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier, a joint meeting of NC CWC and PP had authorized Koirala, Paudel and Deuba to nominate ministers from the party in the new cabinet to be led by Baburam Bhattarai. The Deuba faction has been boycotting CWC meeting following a fresh row over the formation of 101-member ad hoc committee of Nepal Students Union last month.
Party leaders close to Deuba during a joint PP-CWC meeting held at Singha Durbar earlier in the day had reiterated that they would not join the new government until the party establishment settled internal disputes in the party. They also said that all contentious issues in constitution writing must be resolved before the party joined the government.
“The meeting has concluded that NC should not join the new government unless there is agreement on all contentious issues in constitution writing,” said NC CWC member Bimalendra Nidhi after the meeting. Nidhi said they decided to boycott the CWC meeting and join the new government as the party establishment faction is yet to settle internal disputes.
At the CWC meeting, CWC members from the establishment faction had suggested to the party leadership to nominate four of the six ministers to the prime minister keeping in view Saturday´s deadline for the formation of a consensus government as per the five-point deal.
Some leaders speaking at the meeting had also suggested that the disputes over the NSU ad hoc committee be settled to appease the Deuba faction and nominate ministers from the party through consensus. They also argued that since peace and constitution drafting process is yet to conclude, leaders who have contributed in the process should represent the party in the cabinet.
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