Madhav Nepal’s detractors prefer elections during Feb convention

January 1, 2003
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Kathmandu: The UML is at the moment busy in having its 7th general convention held in February next month.

Insiders of the UML say that this time of the convention scheduled to be held in Janakpur will bring face to face the two declared arch rivals: Madhav Nepal and K.P.Woli. The bone of contention is the retaining or capturing of the post of the GS of the party. The race is on in between Madhav Nepal and K.P.Woli.

The second agenda that is expected to dominate the entire proceedings of the convention is the selection of a new chairman for the party which remains vacant since the death of Man Mohan Adhikary.

While Madhav Nepal and his followers wish to retain the posts through arriving at a consensus as in the past, his rivals prefer on the spot elections for the posts of the GS and the chairmanship right inside the convention hall.

” The party must exhibit democratic credentials and hence elections should decide the fate of the presidency and the post of the General Secretary”, opines Bam Dev Gautam of the UML.

Critics of the UML say that the party lacks democratic culture.

The fact is that Madhav Nepal wishes to continue his grip over the party affairs as usual and thus prefers a consensus for the post what he is having now. His detractors reject his views which means that the impending round of the UML convention would not be a cake-walk for Madhav.

In the process, the party apparently has divided into two groups; the one that supports Madhav Nepal unconditionally and the second is the one which wishes to establish a democratic tradition in the party to decide the allotments of the key posts of the party.

Some even claim that the Palace too is interested in the UML convention. Some even predict that the personality who will enjoy the Palace support will emerge as victorious. However, this is yet unclear as to whether or not the Palace was interested in their affair and that which of the two or even three, Madhav, Bamdev or even K.P.Woli, were to be blessed by the Palace at time of the election.

Be that as it may, the UML for the time being would wish a smooth going convention. It would also wish to keep itself in a low profile on the nation’s pressing issues by exhibiting that the party were engaged in its convention and that the convention were more important than the issues confronting the nation.

Reports reaching this newspaper reveal that there is a vigorous eaves-dropping going on in the party to find out the person who would enjoy the blessings of the Palace.

Sounds interesting. If it is so then it would allow us all to understand the UML as a party of the communists better.

Talks are also there inside the party to ascertain which UML stalwart enjoys foreign blessing. This is expected so because if some one in the party could enjoy the Palace blessing then some one in the party must have the foreign blessings.

Would it be then a tussle between the Palace preference and the foreign one?

Let’s wait till the convention in February.