Maoist Center’s General Convention underway in Kathmandu: Here is what you need to know

File photo

NL Today

  • Read Time 3 min.

Kathmandu: The General Convention of CPN (Maoist Center), may be the only remnant force of CPN (Maoist) that launched an armed insurgency against the state in 1996 and that came into mainstream politics in 2006, is underway in Kathmandu. 

The CPN (Maoist Center) has formed a seven-member presidium for conducting proceedings of the closed-door session of its 8th General Convention. To deliberate on the documents presented by chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) and the party statute, 25 groups have been formed. 

The party, led by Prachanda for the last 30 years, is electing new office bearers in its central committee and other bodies but Prachanda’s continuation as the chairman is almost a foregone conclusion. Office bearers are most likely to be appointed in consensus, rather than through voting.

Arguably the harbinger of change and transformation in Nepali politics at one time, Maoist Center now has become a smaller political force with only 48 seats in the House of Representatives.  Chairman Prachanda on Sunday vowed to do a deep soul-searching and reorganize the party with a new spirit through the General Convention. 

Here is a brief by Nepal Live Today about the ongoing convention.

Over 1600 representatives

Over 1600 representatives are participating in the General Convention. They include 803 representatives from the provinces, 179 from among the organizers, 149 from among consultants, 27 central representatives, 125 from the Senior Communist Manch, 102 from central departments, and 75 from central commissions. There will be 148 representatives who will be appointed. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, party spokesperson, said that the total number of elected representatives is 1483. 

Total 30 representatives are selected from every province. Rest, one representative each is selected from every 1500 organized members. The central members of the party automatically become the representatives. There is a provision that one representative should be compulsorily selected from among the injured/disabled members from each province. 

The party, led by Prachanda for the last 30 years, is electing new office bearers in its central committee and other bodies but Prachanda’s continuation as the chairman is almost a foregone conclusion. 

Out of the representatives selected from the provinces, 96 are from province 1, 106 from province 2, 128 from Bagmati, 74 from Gandaki, 105 from Lumbini, 87 from Karnali and 84 from Sudurpaschim. Similarly, 34 representatives are from diaspora province, 42 from the special province, and 43 from Samparka Samanwaya. 

According to the party’s interim statute issued a few months back, there will be two types of members—members and organized members. 

According to the party statute, the representatives selected by the Palika level meetup will take part in the province conference. Province conference will elect a province working committee and central representatives. The representatives elected from the province meetup will take part in the general convention. 

Central committee structure

The central committee meeting of the party on December 27 concluded the structure of the central committee of the party. The central committee will incorporate 299 members including 15 office-bearers. It will include a chairman, a senior vice chairman, six vice-chairmen, a general secretary, two vice general secretaries, three secretaries, and a treasurer. 

In the central committee, 45 will be from Dalit, 15 from Muslim community, 67 will be women, 48 youths and 124 will be from open category.