Nepalese parliamentary speaker Sher Bahadur Deuba has announced that he will not run for party leadership. NC law also provides for a maximum of two presidential terms. The next general assembly of the party will be held in 2026, and a new leader will be elected.
Leaders close to Deuba said the party leader is preparing to hand over the presidency but wants the next general election to be held under his own leadership. Deuba first became party leader in 2016, extending his term until the 2022 general assembly. According to the party statute, the General Assembly must be held every four years, but in case of emergency it can be extended for another year. During his seven-year term, Mr. Deuba consolidated his position within the party, maintaining strong leadership in both the party’s Central Working Committee and the Congress Party. No suggestions or decisions will be accepted without his consent.
Deuba’s decision to step away from the NC leadership comes at a time when there are calls to organize a special general convention to elect a new leadership. The rival camps in the Congress party started calling for Deuba’s resignation after he failed to give continuity to the five-party coalition following the general elections held in November last year. Calls for a change in leadership have grown louder after the party lost the by-election in Tanahun-1, a party stronghold.
NC general secretary duo, Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, and other leaders such as Gururaj Ghimire have emerged as strong advocates of immediate leadership change. But, leaders in the Deuba camp say the party president is seeking a graceful exit, like his predecessors. He has expressed strong disdain toward the ongoing campaign launched by Ghimire for party reformation, saying that such an act will further deepen factional politics inside Congress.
Some party leaders say Deuba’s leadership is increasingly becoming questionable even though the party emerged as the largest party in parliament in the last year’s general elections. They say Deuba has shown no interest whatsoever in bringing programs to reenergize the party. The NC president and a five-time prime minister is also known for disregarding the party’s statute and imposing his own decisions.
For instance, during the last general convention, the party had pledged to organize a policy convention to discuss the party’s ideology, but this has not happened due to Deuba’s reluctance. The NC is confronting new challenges, but its leadership has not paid sufficient attention to energize the party structures. It has been more than a year since the NC held its last convention, and the party is yet to form its departments. The party’s sister organizations are also in a state of mess.
Following the general elections of last year, parties like the CPN-UML have launched various programs to reach out to their cadres and voters. But the Congress party has not brought any such programs. The party has not even reviewed its election performance.
It is the young party members who have been frustrated the most by Deuba’s leadership. Some youth members are even detaching themselves from the party with the intent of joining the new political forces like the Rastriya Swatantra Party.
“Youths are no longer attracted to our party,” says one leader. “It would be a big achievement for the Nepali Congress if only it could retain the youth members that it has right now.”
The situation on the ground is gradually shifting for the NC, but its top leadership has refused to acknowledge it. The party’s organizations are in extreme disarray, and its support base is rapidly shrinking. Some leaders fear that the NC could face a humiliating defeat in the next general elections, if the party did not change its ways.
But who is the next leader who can re-energize the NC? Deuba took the leadership of the party after a long-battle with the Koirala dynasty. In the 2022 general convention, he got elected as party president but his key confidants lost the election to the party’s office bearers.
Two of Deuba’s rivals, Thapa and Sharma, won the post of party’s general secretary, who are now calling for an end to Deuba’s reign to save Congress. Thapa has even projected himself as the next party leader.
In the Deuba camp are leaders like Purna Bahadur Khadka, Prakash Sharan Mahat, and Gyanendra Bahadur Karki. Bal Krishna Khand, another close confidant of Deuba, is currently under arrest for his alleged involvement in Bhutanese refugee scam.
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