Nepali Congress calls urgent meet to discuss Communist surge

Shaken by the surge of communist parties, Nepal's largest party Nepali Congress today began an urgent meet to assess the political situation in the country during which its workers voiced their concern over the loss of the four top constitutional posts to the ruling alliance.
The Nepali Congress leadership had to face music from its cadres during the high-level meeting, convened to discuss the agenda of the 13th general convention of the party scheduled to take place towards the first week of March.
The meeting comes in the wake of increasing displeasure among party workers over the failure of the country's largest party's strategy to compete with the communist alliance.

Nepali Congress Central Working Committee members questioned the party leadership over failure in the polls.
"We will discuss the upcoming general convention of the party, the current political situation in the country and the on going agitation in the southern plains by the Madhesi groups," said Nabindra Raj Joshi, a Central Working Committee member, told PTI.
The meeting, which began earlier today, will continue tomorrow, when the party leadership will review their poor performance during the elections.

The key posts -- President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Parliament -- went to the communist alliance during the recent elections, raising concerns of the Nepalese democrats.

Nepali Congress, which held the key positions until last month, lost the posts of President and Prime Minister to CPN-UML and Speaker and Vice-president to UCPN-Maoist.
CPM-UML's K P Sharma Oli became the Prime Minister and the party's Vidya Devi Bhandari the President.
Bhandari -- widow of charismatic CPN (UML) general secretary Madan Bhandari, who died in a yet unexplained road accident in 1993 -- is the first female president of Nepal.
Former guerrilla commander Onsari Gharti has been elected to the post of Speaker of the Parliament and the chief commander of the Peoples Liberation Army during the insurgency era, has become the Vice president.

Not only that the Communist alliance has surged ahead in the elections last month, Nepal has also moved closer to the Communist China with the new Nepalese government signing a pact with Beijing to import petroleum products.
The deal with China has ended the 40-year monopoly of Indian Oil Corporation in Nepal, which observers here believe will also go against the Indian interests.
Nepal is facing an acute transport blockade in the wake of anti-constitution protests in the southern plains by the Madhesis and the indigenous groups over the new Constitution.