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UML gen secy says party’s 8th convention will be ‘historic’ as leaders scramble to forge consensus

CPN (UML) general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal on Sunday said the 8th general convention of party will be “historic” as well as work to “forge consensus” among its increasingly divided leaders and activists.

Speaking at a program in Butwal, he said the convention is very important for the sheer fact that it will play a major role to determine the “future strategy of the party” and will have “far-reaching effect on the country”.

Clearly concerned by increasing tensions among the party activists caused by intra-party conflict, Khanal also called on party activists to move ahead with consensus and fellow-feeling.

Meanwhile, the preparations for the keenly awaited 8th general convention of party to be held in mid-western town of Butwal from February 16 to 21 is almost complete, reports said.

Organizing a press conference in Butwal, UML leader Ishwor Pokharel, chief of the party’s publicity department, said that apart from “few technicalities” that remain to be sorted out for the opening and closing sessions of the event things are all go for the convention.

Reports said necessary arrangements at the Butwal Mandap, the venue of the convention, have been completed, and the central leaders have arrived in the town. Party delegates, foreign invitees including one of the main guests – NC president Girija Prasad Koirala – is already in Butwal to participate in the major party event.

UML general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal is expected to formally inaugurate the general convention at 1 pm tomorrow.

Senior UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari, who is heading the General Convention Organising Committee., will bring the “peace torch” from Gautam Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini to the venue tomorrow and hand it over to UML general secretary Khanal – a symbolic gesture that will mark the formal beginning of the event.

The party has been claiming that this General Convention will be historic, as it is expected to give a new lease of life to a party that floundered badly in the Consituent Assembly elections and slipped from becoming the main communist party of Nepal to a second fiddle to Unified CPN (Maoist)

The convention is also being seen as a turf battle between three of its top leaders – Jhala Nath Khanal (UML general secretary) Madhav Kumar Nepal (UML’s former general secretary), and K.P Oli – for the post of all-powerful chairman of the party.

The UML has decided to go for multi-post leadership system from this general convention which, leaders claim, will be the convention of party unity and ideological clarity.

However, sources said that efforts are on to find a “consensus candidate” among the three for the post.

A section of UML central leaders were busy from Saturday in deliberations with leaders and cadres at different levels of the party in an attempt to find a consensus candidate for the post of chairman.

For general secretary, which has been the single powerful post till now, standing committee member Pradeep Nepal has declared his candidacy. Party spokesperson Ishwor Pokharel is another likely candidate for the post, but there are no obvious contenders for the posts of vice-chairman and secretary, party sources say. nepalnews.com Feb 15 09