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The closed session of the Mahasamiti meeting of the Nepali Congress is starting today.

The Mahasamiti meeting ended with the opening session on Monday and the closed session will start from 9 am today, said NC Central Office Chief Secretary Krishna Prasad Paudel. Five different reports are going to be submitted for discussion in the meeting.

The reports includes the policy proposal by Party Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka, organizational proposal by General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa, contemporary political proposal by General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma, proposal regarding the economic situation, prospects and future direction by the party's spokesperson Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat while coordinator of the audit committee Shyam Kumar Ghimire is going to submit the audit report proposal, according to coordinator of the information, communication and publicity department of the party, Min Bahadur Bishwakarma.

The proposals presented in the meeting will be discussed and passed by the Mahasamiti meeting.

The meeting which started from Monday at Sunrise Conference Center in Godavari, Lalitpur will continue till February 22.

More than 2,000 delegates from across the country are participating in the meeting.

The Mahasamiti meeting of Nepali Congress started on Monday after a six-year hiatus. Although the party’s top decision-making body, which is supposed to meet every two years, last held its meeting in 2018, which came hot on the heels of Congress’ historic electoral drubbing in general elections. 

In these past six years, the party has re-emerged as the largest party, thanks to the electoral alliance with the CPN (Maoist Center) and a few other fringe parties in the 2022 general elections. However, the grand old party is still not out of the woods yet. The party’s popularity is diminishing, intra-party rift is becoming increasingly tense, and the organizational structure is in shambles.  

The electoral alliance in 2022 elections catapulted NC back to the top spot, but many in the party are of the view that they should think about contesting the next general elections without any alliance.     

NC General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa and his team is pressing the leadership of Sher Bahadur Deuba to pass a resolution that the party will not forge a pre-poll alliance. However, Deuba and his supporters are not keen about the idea. 

In a direct reference to the Maoist party, in his political document, Thapa states: “The Mahasamiti meeting should make a resolution that the party would not forge a pre-election alliance, and will not create an environment in which the cadres will be forced to vote for other parties.”

The document further states though the prospects of a single party securing a majority are slim under the current electoral system, there can be a post-election alliance to deliver a government on the basis of common minimum program. The grassroots level cadres, according to Thapa, feel that pre-poll alliance is eroding the party’s ideology. 

“Between the 2017 and 2022 elections, our popular votes have shrunken by five percent. This is because NC cadres and supporters did not get the chance to vote for their party,” Thapa told the Mahasamiti meeting. 

Regarding the existing alliance with Maoist, Thapa said that the party should stick to it for the next four years, but come the next general elections, the Nepali Congress should fight alone. 

The faction led by senior leader Shekhar Koirala has a similar position on electoral alliance. 

“When I visit outside Kathmandu, our cadres often ask me, ‘When will we contest the election as a single party?’ Because of the electoral alliance, our vote share has decreased to 27 percent from 34\35 percent,” he said.

The reading of Thapa and Koirala regarding the pre-election alliance is the same, but their ambition to become the next president of the NC prevents them from joining hands to mount pressure on the current leadership. 

NC President Deuba and his supporters do not subscribe to Thapa and Koirala’s views. They believe that the alliance with Maoists helped the Congress become the largest party, and that this partnership could be continued in the future. 

The NC leadership takes the alliance with the Maoists as a compulsion and strategy to keep its main rival, the CPN-UML, out of power. But the local level leaders are not satisfied with the alliance. This was evident when the party members disregarded the NC-Maoist alliance and voted for the UML candidate in the National Assembly elections of Koshi province. The incident has created an environment of distrust between the NC and the Maoist party. 

NC leader Nain Singh Mahar says local level cadres are dead set against pre-poll alliance, mainly with the Maoist party. 

Given the animosity between two parties during the insurgency era, the NC cadres do not want to vote for the Maoist party. During the armed rebellion launched by the Maoists, the rebel force killed scores of NC cadres and confiscated their properties. To this day, the supporters of NC see the Maoists as their enemy. Even when the Maoists decided to join mainstream politics, scores of NC leaders and cadres were against the peace process initiated by former Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala.

In the 2022 general elections, the NC forged an electoral alliance with the Maoists to defeat the UML. Soon after the elections, the Maoist chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, whose party polled behind the UML in third position, urged the NC to support his prime ministerial bid.

When the NC rejected Dahal’s bid, the Maoist leader went on to join forces with the UML to become prime minister. This led to a bizarre scenario where the NC, despite winning the most number of seats in the House of Representatives, was consigned to the opposition aisle. Deuba’s leadership was heavily criticized at the time. Questions were also raised about alliance politics, particularly when two parties with opposing ideologies come together. 

The Deuba leadership managed to break the Maoist-UML alliance and reform another government under Dahal, but the debate over electoral alliance did not leave the NC. Deuba and his supporters may not want to pass the resolution rejecting the pre-poll alliance, as it could create friction within the current coalition. But this does not mean that the pressure is not off from Deuba. 

If the NC Mahasamiti meeting endorses the resolution, it will surely create a rift in the NC-Maoist coalition. The next general elections are still four years away, and if NC passes such a proposal, there is a high chance that the Maoists will once again join forces with the UML. 

It’s clear that Deuba doesn’t want to scupper his chance to become prime minister as per the deal reached with the Maoist chairman and current prime minister, Dahal. Deuba will try his best not to get the Thapa-proposed resolution passed from the Mahasamiti meeting. 

Vice-President Purna Bahadur Khadka, a leader close to Deuba, in his political document, states that the election alliance has become a compulsion due to the current electoral system. 

“We are forging the electoral alliance to avoid the risks of political instability because under the current system, no party secures the majority numbers required to form a government.” 

Another General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma has taken a middle path stating that it would be too early to decide about the electoral alliance, as the election is four years away.  He nevertheless agrees that alliance politics is damaging the party's reputation among the supporters.

Frustration is also growing among the Congress cadres and supporters because the current coalition government has failed to deliver. Although the NC dominates in all three tiers of government, the party has not taken any notable initiatives to ensure good governance and development. 

According to Thapa, there is not proper coordination and communication between the party and government, a major challenge that all governments have been facing after the restoration of democracy in 1990.  

As the decision of the ongoing Mahasamiti meeting of the NC could impact the national politics, the Maoist and the UML will be closely following the development.

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has expressed the confidence that the Mahasamiti meeting of the party will make the party stronger and united.

Speaking at the party's Mahasamiti meeting that began in Godavari, Lalitpur today, he said that the event is being eagerly watched inside and abroad with the expectation that it will make the Congress stronger and more unified.

Deuba said that the Mahasamiti meeting will discuss the policy issues of the party and prepare a document by incorporating the suggestions received in the meeting. "The Congress has a long history of struggle for the establishment, restoration and protection of democracy in the country. Whenever there is a crisis in the country, the Congress has led and provided a solution. It is because of its determination to never compromise with democratic values that this party has succeeded in building a name for itself at the national and international level," he said.

Deuba, who is also the former prime minister, said that the need of the day at present is to protect and effectively implement the Constitution.

He also made it clear that the coalition government was formed not merely for the formation of a government but to neutralize efforts to lead the country towards political instability by dissolving the House of Representatives and thereby put the Constitution at risk. "The Congress is always for dialogue, understanding and cooperation and mentioned that competition between political parties is natural," he added.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the School Education Bill under consideration in the Federal Parliament will be endorsed with necessary amendments.

Speaking at a workshop on 'Nepal's Educational Movement and School Education Bill' organized by the Samajbadi Educational Forum here today, the Prime Minister said that the Bill will be further enriched with amendments.

Stating that the Bill was discussed with the ruling coalition partners and the opposition parties, Prime Minister Dahal said that the bill will be amended based on the amendment proposals registered in the Parliament. "Necessary amendments to the Bill will be made by including the feedback of teachers, trade unions, academicians, students' organizations, stakeholders and the parents," he said.

He also said the government is committed to implementing the agreements made by the state in the past with teachers' associations and other stakeholders.

The Prime Minister called for developing a positive narrative that it is possible to do something in the country, and thereby to prevent the brain drain, for which he emphasized on producing competitive and quality human resources.

Noting that the basis to achieve qualitative progress in the development of quality, competitive, innovation-oriented education should be developed, the Prime Minister said that emphasis has been placed on reward and punishment, along with meritocracy in order to bring about qualitative improvement in the educational sector. "Appointments will be made on the basis of meritocracy in academic institutions, including universities, and that reward and punishment will be enforced in the education sector.”

On the occasion, CPN (Unified Socialist) Vice President Rajendra Pandey said that the forum should focus its debate on socialism-oriented education.