The establishment faction of the Nepali Congress has taken disciplinary action against party General Secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma.

A meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee held at the central office in Sanepa decided to expel Thapa and Sharma, along with Joint General Secretary Farmullah Mansur, from the party for five years.

The meeting also directed those advocating for a special general convention to return to their respective party roles.

The party said the action was taken for calling a special general convention against the party’s official decision. Thapa and Sharma had announced the convention, citing demands from 54 percent of the party’s general convention representatives, claiming the leadership had ignored their call.

However, a Central Working Committee meeting, attended by both Thapa and Sharma, had earlier agreed to hold the party’s regular general convention in April if it could not be organised in January. The two general secretaries had expressed dissent over that decision.

Insisting that the decision of the closed session hall would be final, Thapa and Sharma proceeded to form an election committee and moved ahead with the electoral process to convene the special convention.

In an effort to prevent a party split, leaders held discussions in several phases. On Tuesday alone, talks were held in three rounds. Earlier this morning, the two general secretaries also met party president Sher Bahadur Deuba, but the discussion failed to produce a breakthrough.

Following the deadlock, the faction backing the special convention instructed the election committee to proceed with disciplinary action. Accordingly, Gagan Thapa’s name has been registered as a candidate for the party presidency.

The election committee has said that nominations for other office-bearer positions have also been filed.

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