Thirty six Janajati leaders resign from Nepali Congress accusing party of being against federalism

Even though Nepali Congress has decided to address the demands raised by the leaders representing the indigenous community after consultation within the party, 36 janajati (indigenous) leaders and cadres of the party on Wednesday announced their resignation from party’s membership.

Speaking at a programme in Boudha in the Capital to announce their dissociation with the party, the disgruntled janajati leaders said they are leaving Nepali Congress as the party was not seen serious about federalism, one of their foremost demands.

The breakaway group said the drastic move was taken as NC was not serious about the agenda of the janajati leaders to federate the country into 10 states as per the recommendation made by the State Restructuring Commission (SRC). They also accused the party leadership of playing an instrumental role in the early demise of the Constituent Assembly (CA) without promulgating the constitution so as to ensure that the country does not adopt federalism

However, on the same day, the NC office bearers' meeting held at party president Sushil Koirala's residence in Maharajgunj concluded that the demands of the indigenous leaders to ensure federalism based on ethnicity and rights to the indigenous nationalities “was genuine”.

Emerging from the meeting, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba said that they decided to address the demands of indigenous leaders after recognising the issues raised by them. He said they will hold further discussions on this within the party. nepalnews.com