KATHMANDU: The Nepali Congress (NC) has officially split following the Central Committee’s decision to take disciplinary action against the General Secretaries duo and the Deputy General Secretary who supported the Special General Convention.

The party suspended General Secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, along with Joint General Secretary Farmullah Mansoor, for five years. Central Committee member Ajaybabu Shiwakoti stated that despite repeatedly showing flexibility to reach a consensus, the leaders were penalized.

“Today’s Central Working Committee meeting decided to take disciplinary action against them, citing various allegations. The establishment faction appeared active in splitting the party,” Shiwakoti said. The Central Committee took action against them for allegedly calling a Special General Convention against its decision. Multiple rounds of talks had taken place between the establishment faction and the Special Convention supporters, but they failed to yield results.

“Even after showing repeated flexibility for negotiations and waiting until the end for party unity, the establishment faction under President Sher Bahadur Deuba took action, forcing the Special Convention supporters to form a new working committee,” Shiwakoti added.

The Special General Convention faction claims that more than 63% of convention delegates nationwide pressured for the selection of a new leadership. Ignoring negotiations and showing intolerance, the Deuba faction prompted the Special Convention supporters to prepare for forming a new working committee. During the Special General Convention ongoing at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu since January 11, groundwork is underway to form a unanimous new committee.

The Special Convention faction has demanded that President Deuba step aside from the executive role, that the Special General Convention be recognized as its rightful authority, that they be allowed to decide the Prime Ministerial candidate, that no electoral alliance be made with any party, that a fully acceptable parliamentary board be formed for ticket distribution, that a five-member high-level mechanism be formed to focus on elections, that Deuba not sign candidates’ tickets, and that the reports presented in the Special General Convention be adopted as party assets.

The Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress has suspended General Secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, and Deputy General Secretary Farmullah Mansoor for five years.

The Special General Convention of the Nepali Congress had already dissolved the Central Committee under Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday. The Election Office stated that with the start of the election process for the 134-member Central Committee, the old working committee was dissolved.

The Central Committee under Deuba was formed on 10-14 December 2021. According to Sitaram KC, the coordinator of the central election committee, the tenure of the current committee formed during the 14th General Convention under Deuba had expired, hence it was dissolved.

KC stated that a new Central Working Committee election will be conducted until the 15th General Convention is completed. According to Sharma, the Central Election Committee, Central Discipline Committee, and Central Audit Committee, formed at different times under the 2017 party statute, had already been dissolved.

Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi said that the delegates participating in the Special General Convention are the official decision-making authorities of the party. “After they changed their votes, the leadership was supposed to accept it as per party statute. However, the leadership proceeded by disregarding the delegates’ decision,” he said.