GANDAKI Province UML Leaders Demand Party Reorganization

Pokhara. Most UML leaders-workers of Gandaki Province have stood in favor of party reorganization. Participants of the election review and gathering held in Pokhara have suggested that both the party's policy and leadership need to be changed. 

Provincial Committee, district presidents and office bearers, and central members and central task force members representing the province participated in the gathering. In fact, the meeting of district presidents held immediately after the election on Falgun 21 had created pressure with the demand that the party's leadership should be changed immediately. 

Presidents from most districts of Gandaki participated in that gathering. Even now, except for one or two, all district presidents have stood in favor of party reorganization, participants of the meeting said.

'The general understanding is that the election did not yield the expected results due to the weaknesses in the existing policy and leadership,' said a provincial office bearer, 'Therefore, 90 percent of the participants' suggestion is that both policy and leadership should be reorganized and the leadership should be changed.' 

Task force coordinator Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal' himself participated in the meeting. Especially, district presidents and provincial committee office bearers and members suggested that the existing leadership must be changed. 

'Policy and leadership are complementary to each other. Losing elections due to wrong policies and the leadership not taking moral responsibility for it pushes the party further into crisis,' say the presidents, 'Now the party cannot afford to be defensive, reform must begin.' 

The meeting concluded that the electoral alliance with the Nepali Congress was the main reason for the party's defeat. 'The tactical alliance with the Nepali Congress, which was against the local psychology, was wrong,' everyone said, 'It has caused great damage to the party not only ideologically but also organizationally.' Congress and UML had run coalition governments at the center and provincial levels. 

Members of the meeting accused that even while participating in the government, their party's policies could not be fully implemented, and attention was not paid to addressing the demands of civil servants and professional organizations. The meeting concluded that alliances made solely for gaining power could not energize the party rank and file. 

Presidents from districts including Syangja, Kaski, Gorkha, Lamjung, Parbat, and Nawalpur criticized the leadership's style of work. It has been analyzed that in these districts, despite having a strong organization of UML, defeat had to be faced due to inefficient internal management. However, presidents from some districts including Tanahun defended the leadership, arguing that the party could become weaker in the name of change. 

Provincial Secretary Dhananjay Dawadi informed that the suggestions received in the provincial gathering will be sent to the center in the form of a report. The task force will prepare a detailed review report incorporating the written and oral suggestions received from all districts. 

The Provincial Committee will submit this report, with necessary revisions, to the party's central secretariat and top leadership for final approval. 'Many types of suggestions have come. The province will send them to the central task force in the form of a report, incorporating all of them,' he said, 'Hopefully, the task force will make a decision based on the suggestions from the grassroots.' 

The report sent by the province will be discussed in detail at the upcoming meeting of the Central Secretariat. After that, the task force will make decisions and submit suggestions to the secretariat regarding party leadership restructuring, policy reforms, and organizational changes. 

The eighth meeting of the UML Secretariat held on Jestha 10 formed a 15-member suggestion collection task force under the convenorship of party vice-chairman Ram Bahadur Thapa. Subsequently, the first meeting of the task force held on Jestha 26 in the presence of UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli set a schedule for collecting suggestions at the provincial level. 

The task force has scheduled to collect suggestions from people's organization representatives on Asar 18 and from central department chiefs and officials of various bodies on Asar 19. UML has stated that it will determine its future strategy for party reorganization and transformation based on the collected suggestions.