KATHMANDU: A team of 19 office bearers has been elected at the 15th General Convention of the Nepali Congress (NC) under the leadership of Gagan Thapa.
While Bishwaprakash Sharma was elected senior vice-president and Pushpa Bhusal women’s vice-president unopposed, 17 office bearers, including party president Thapa, were elected through a competitive process.
Thapa, who was elected president at the party’s Special General Convention, secured another victory at the regular General Convention, defeating Shyam Krishna Khadki by a wide margin. Thapa received 6,584 votes, while Khadki secured just 375.
Dr Chandrakanta Bhandari and Madhu Acharya were elected to the two open vice-president positions in a contest involving seven candidates. Govinda Bhattarai, Surendra Raj Pandey, Dhanraj Gurung, Deepak Giri and Dr Chandra Mohan Yadav were among those defeated.
Industrialist Binod Chaudhary was elected inclusive vice-president in a contest involving five candidates. He defeated Jiwan Pariyar, Farmullah Mansur, Sita Gurung and Ranjit Karna to secure a place in the party’s leadership.
Pradeep Poudel and Udaya Shumsher Rana won the two open general secretary positions in a contest involving eight candidates. The other candidates were Dr Sunil Sharma, Gururaj Ghimire, Nainsingh Mahar, Amarsingh Pun Magar, Shankar Tiwari and Dr Santosh Upadhyay.
Dr Dila Sangraula was elected women’s general secretary in a three-way contest. Mahalaxmi Upadhyay (Dina) finished second, while Rita Khanal came third.
Likewise, eleven joint general secretaries were elected from different clusters.
Ramhari Khatiwada and Ajay Babu Siwakoti won the two open joint general secretary positions. They defeated Dilliram Subedi, Devendra Raj Kandel, Rajiv Dhungana, Bikash Koirala, Amrit Kumar Aryal, Ramesh Prasad Dhamala and Bimal Raj Chhetri.
Manoj Mani Acharya was elected joint general secretary from the Khas-Arya cluster, defeating Jagdishwar Narsingh KC, Dinesh Koirala and Shubharam Basnet.
Similarly, Yogendra Chaudhary was elected joint general secretary from the Tharu cluster, defeating Tejulal Chaudhary and Surendra Chaudhary.
Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya won the Madhesi cluster’s joint general secretary position in a contest involving eight candidates. He defeated Mahendra Yadav, Abhishek Pratap Shah, Kiran Yadav, Ram Paltan Sah, Nagina Yadav, Mukta Kumari Yadav and Manish Kumar Mishra.
Pratima Gautam was elected joint general secretary from the women’s cluster, defeating Nanu Maiya Bastola.
Similarly, Bahadur Singh Lama Tamang won the joint general secretary position representing Indigenous nationalities, defeating Om Bahadur Gharti Magar, Taraman Gurung, Dilman Pakhrin and Prashant Man Singh Maskey.
Prakash Rasaili Snehi was elected joint general secretary from the Dalit cluster in a three-way contest. Man Bahadur Nepali and Narendra Paswan finished second and third, respectively.
Jiwan Bahadur Shahi was elected joint general secretary from the backward areas cluster in a five-way contest. He defeated Janakraj Giri, Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, Rajan Kunwar and Ram Bahadur Bista.
Dr Firdosh Alam won the joint general secretary position representing the Muslim cluster, defeating Abdul Sattar and Athar Kamal.
Angelu Sherpa was elected joint general secretary representing minorities and persons with disabilities, defeating Nagendra Kumar Kumal and Babukrishna Sapkota.
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