Young Leaders Express Dissatisfaction Over Nepal Communist Party's New Central Coordination Committee

Kathmandu. Young leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) for forming a 45-member Central Coordination Committee. The NCP was formed through the merger of 25 factions, including the former CPN (Maoist Center) and the CPN (Unified Socialist).

Following election results that fell short of the internal assessment of becoming a decisive force in the House of Representatives with at least 60 seats, coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' called the first meeting of the Central Coordination Committee on Chaitra 19. During the meeting, Prachanda presented a preliminary review report on the electoral defeat.

On the same day, leader Prem Bahadur Singh announced the Central Coordination Committee. Most individuals in the committee are office-bearers from various factions.

Young leaders of the NCP have described it as ironic that leaders who should be in an advisory committee are active in the executive committee. Ranjit Tamang, former president of All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) and a central committee member, expressed his dissatisfaction, stating that the leadership has failed to grasp the reality despite the major setback the party faced from the Gen-Z movement and election results.

Tamang demanded an immediate central committee meeting to transform the existing committee into a General Convention Organizing Committee. "There is no point in repeating the same generation and the same figures who do not improve after elections. This cannot provide confidence to Nepali society. Such activities cannot transform the Communist Party," he told Ratopati. "There is no alternative but to immediately make the existing central committee a General Convention Organizing Committee. We must go to the General Convention with a plan for leadership transfer and generational handover. Creating various committees is equivalent to dissolving the party during one's own tenure."

Pancha Singh, former president of All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) and central committee member, also expressed dissatisfaction with the 45-member committee. Singh alleged that this committee is against the party's statute and the spirit of inclusive participation.

"The 45-member Central Coordination Committee recently made public by the party mocks the party's own statute and the spirit of inclusive participation. It is ironic that this practice of the NCP appears weaker than even conservative forces regarding inclusivity," she wrote on Facebook.

Singh warned that if this style of disregarding the statute and abandoning inclusive principles continues in lower-level committees, these committees will not be the foundation of party unity but merely witnesses to its dissolution.

Prem Jaisi, Central Secretary of the All (Revolutionary), objected to the report presented by coordinator Prachanda, which attributed the party's electoral defeat to the lack of youth participation. Jaisi asserted that the party achieved excellence because the youth of the All (Revolutionary) voted for it.

"In Comrade Prachanda's election review report, it was stated that student and youth organizations could not organize the new generation. The All (Revolutionary) achieved single excellence in the Free Student Union elections against the alliance of ANNFSU and NSU, and against the power of the Oli government, not because your party leaders voted, but because the new generation voted for the All (Revolutionary)," he said.

He suggested that the leadership should find the reasons why the new generation did not vote for the party and why they stopped trusting it. Demanding the withdrawal of the report that blamed student organizations, Jaisi warned that otherwise, it would be rejected from the streets.

In the 10-page report presented by Prachanda, it was mentioned that the youth were distanced from the party because they were not involved and were used against them in the elections.

Leader Ramkumar Bhattarai informed that the report will be discussed continuously starting tomorrow, Monday. Bhattarai said that decisions regarding preparations for the General Convention, division of work, and municipal-level conventions will be made.

"We have conducted a preliminary review of the election results. The report has been distributed to members for study. The review will continue from tomorrow. The meeting will reach a conclusion that includes everyone," he said.

However, he insisted that the Central Committee and Secretariat were not formed according to the statute. According to the NCP's interim statute, there is a provision for a 601-member Central Committee.

The statute states that the Central Committee, Central Coordination Committee, and Secretariat will be formed based on consensus in the spirit of party unity. Before the election, members of the 2,499-member jumbo central committee had already taken the oath.

Bhattarai informed that the 125-member Central Secretariat is yet to be formed. In the Central Coordination Committee, 21 members are from the former Maoist faction, 16 from the Unified Socialist, and the rest from other factions. There are only four female members in the committee.

Who are the members of the Central Coordination Committee?