Kathmandu: The Sher Bahadur Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress has decided to hold its general convention at Khulamanch in the capital, fixing the three-day event for December 21 to 23. The decision, announced by officials of the faction's convention preparation and election bodies, marks the latest and most concrete step yet in the parallel organisational tracks that have taken shape inside one of Nepal's oldest and most influential political parties following its internal division. According to details published by Onlinekhabar, the inaugural ceremony will be staged at Khulamanch, with Deuba himself set to declare the convention open.

Khulamanch booked for the inaugural ceremony

Dipak Kuikel, chief of the secretariat of the convention preparation committee, said the inaugural ceremony of the general convention will be held at Khulamanch, the large open ground in central Kathmandu that has long served as the venue for major political rallies and public gatherings.

Amrit Karki, member-secretary of the faction's central election committee, confirmed that the venue has already been booked, a clear sign that the faction has moved beyond internal deliberation and into firm logistical commitments for its showcase event. The booking of a venue of Khulamanch's scale also suggests the faction is preparing to host a large gathering of delegates and supporters for the opening day.

The choice of location carries symbolic weight as well. Situated in the heart of the capital, Khulamanch has historically been the stage for landmark political programmes, and holding the inaugural ceremony there allows the Deuba camp to present a high-visibility display of its organisational presence at the very centre of Nepal's political life.

A three-day convention under Deuba's gavel

The convention is scheduled to run across three days, from December 21 to 23, with Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba set to inaugurate the event. Key details of the programme announced so far include:

  • Event: General convention of the Sher Bahadur Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress
  • Venue: Khulamanch, Kathmandu, for the inaugural ceremony
  • Dates: December 21 to 23
  • Inauguration: Sher Bahadur Deuba, Nepali Congress president

Two key bodies within the faction are driving the preparations. The preparation committee, whose secretariat is headed by Kuikel, is managing arrangements for the venue and the opening ceremony. Alongside it, the central election committee, in which Karki serves as member-secretary, is responsible for the electoral side of the convention, indicating that the event is being organised as a full-fledged general convention rather than a symbolic assembly.

A general convention is the highest organisational forum of the Nepali Congress, the setting in which the party's leadership and office-bearers are chosen and its political course is charted. By fixing dates, booking a venue and mobilising both its preparation and election committees, the Deuba faction is working to ensure that its convention is conducted with the formality and scale associated with that status.

Rival conventions and a divided party

The announcement comes after the Gagan Kumar Thapa faction of the Nepali Congress earlier held its own general convention to elect new leadership. That gathering produced a leadership lineup for the rival camp and signalled that the party's internal rift had hardened into two parallel organisational structures, each claiming to speak for the mainstream of the party.

With the Deuba faction now following suit by booking Khulamanch and announcing a fixed three-day schedule, the party is set to witness general conventions from both sides of its divide. The rival conventions sharpen the central question facing the Nepali Congress: which organisational set-up, and which leadership, will be recognised as the authentic voice of the party going forward.

The sequencing of the two events is notable. The Thapa faction moved first, using its convention to elect new leadership. The Deuba camp's response, a full three-day convention in the capital inaugurated by Deuba himself, is the most emphatic organisational answer it has yet given, and the announcement of the venue and dates indicates the faction intends to match the rival camp's convention with one of its own on equally formal terms.

High stakes for the party's future

For the Nepali Congress, a party that has long occupied a central place in Nepali politics, the prospect of two competing general conventions carries significant organisational and political consequences. Conventions determine leadership positions, and leadership positions in turn determine who controls the party's apparatus, its decision-making bodies and its political direction.

The Deuba faction's latest move does not resolve that contest, but it underlines how far the two camps have travelled from internal negotiation toward parallel, independently organised events. The faction's preparation and election committees are now working to a fixed calendar, with a booked venue and a set inauguration date.

For now, attention in the party turns to Khulamanch this December, where Deuba is scheduled to open his faction's general convention on December 21, three days of proceedings that will unfold against the backdrop of the rival leadership elected earlier by the Gagan Kumar Thapa camp. How the two parallel conventions are received, and whether any path back to a unified organisation emerges, remains the overriding question confronting Nepal's grand old party as the convention dates approach.