Deuba-led Congress: All new except Deuba and Khadka

KATHMANDU: Vote-counting for the central executive committee of the grand old Nepali Congress (NC) is still underway at the Sanepa, Lalitpur-based party head office. 

However, a 13-member office bearers’ team has got the final shape as vote-count for joint general secretaries came to an end on Friday afternoon. 

Sher Bahadur Deuba has been elected for the second straight term as the party president. He reclaimed his victory in a run-off defeating Dr Shekhar Kolirala. 

Deuba, the five-time prime minister and also a serving executive head of the state, holds a comfortable majority in the team of 13 office bearer positions. 

Except for a vice-president (Dhanraj Gurung), two general secretaries (Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma) and two joint general secretaries (Jivan Pariyar and Badri Pandey), all other office bearers belong to his panel. Though Bishwa Prakash Sharma, one of the two general secretaries, was considered close to the Deuba camp, was fielded by the Prakash Man Singh panel. 

Other office bearers include Purna Bahadur Khadka (vice-president), Kishor Singh Rathor, Malalaxmi Upadhyay, Farmullah Mansoor, Umakanta Chaudhary, Mahendra Yadav and Bhishmaraj Angdembe (joint general secretaries). 

The team, except for Deuba and Khadka, has all new members. While Deuba completed his first tenure as the party tenure (2016-2021), Khadka was one of two general secretaries in the Deuba-led team. 

Thapa contested for the same position in the 2016 general convention, however, lost to Dr Shahshank Koirala. 

Sharma has been serving as party spokesperson since 2018, however, has not held any executive position except for the central committee member.