KATHMANDU: A series of meetings held by the Nepali Congress (NC) district presidents have, at some point, succeeded in putting pressure on the party leadership.

This becomes evident when party President Sher Bahadur Deuba assured a team of party leaders, including NP Saud, that he was ready to work in tandem with the disgruntled faction while maintaining flexibility on some of the issues.

Deuba was, however, adamant on the issue of the party’s general convention saying that he would not consider changing the date of the convention at any cost. “It’s a decision of the party’s central committee hence cannot change it. The convention will be held on the stipulated date,” Saud quoted Deuba as saying while talking to Khabarhub.

A central committee meeting of the party held on December 27 last year had finalized the date of the next general convention from February 19-22, 2021.

According to leader Saud, NC President Deuba expressed his willingness to discuss other issues with the Poudel faction.

Ram Chandra Poudel, meanwhile, labeled the developments as positive but expressed skepticism over Deuba’s assurances. “A team of party leaders is endeavoring to narrow down the intra-party differences,” Poudel told Khabarhub.

“It’s obviously a positive step,” he said. Poudel, however, is not ready to trust Deuba’s words.

Leaders, including Saud, Chandra Bhandari, Gagan Thapa, Guru Ghimire, Bhimsma Raj Aangdambe, Govinda Shah, Dhan Raj Gurung, and Surendra Pandey held separate meetings with Deuba and Poudel in an effort to end differences between the two senior leaders.

Meanwhile, party leader Dr Praksah Sharan Mahat, too, reached the party central office at Sanepa with Deuba’s message saying that he was ready to ‘maintain flexibility’.

The district presidents, mostly supporting party senior leader Poudel, and Krishna Prasad Sitaula, were holding a meeting when Dr. Mahat reached the scene with Deuba’s note taken ‘positively, yet cautiously’ by the disgruntled faction.

Dr. Mahat told the meeting that party President Deuba is ready to maintain flexibility by correcting the decisions.

“The disgruntled leaders must attend the meeting so that contentious issues can be resolved,” Dr. Mahat said.

According to him, Deuba was ready to discuss and resolve any outstanding issues with the dissatisfied section of the party.

He is also learned to have told the district president not to talk about any faction. “It’s high time that the party united at a time when the government is hell-bent on curtailing people’s rights,” he said.

A total of 45 district presidents of the party are currently engaged in a series of meetings in Kathmandu. They have alleged the party leadership for making arbitrary decisions.

The main opposition party, NC, is currently caught in a mess as Deuba extended his term by another one year until March 3, 2020, while he announced the date for the next general convention without consulting the disgruntled faction led by party senior leader Poudel.

The party’s central working committee on December 27 last year had also finalized the date of the next general convention from February 19-22, 2021.