26 Chait, Kathmandu. The Nepali Congress, which suffered an unexpected defeat in the House of Representatives elections held on February 21, is now locked in an internal crisis.

Amidst the political developments after the Genji movement of last August 23 and 24, the special convention held in mid-December has weakened the ‘roots’ of the Congress after internal factionalism broke out. The Congress, which is the main opposition party in the House of Representatives, looks green at the top, but the root soil is dry and there is no water.

The Congress, which is preparing for the 15th Congress amid internal strife, has accepted this reality and made the ‘Ek Mahi Jarama Go Abhiyan’ its main weapon with the aim of strengthening the party organization.

‘Since our party’s election symbol is a tree, it is natural for us to be close to the word roots,’ says General Minister Pradeep Paudel about the ‘Go to the Roots campaign’, ‘the tree has now become a bit desolate, the leaves have fallen, it looks like it is bare. That’s why we are going to run a campaign to say that we have to apply fertilizer to the roots, we have to water, and we have to make the trees green.’

Physical presence is mandatory for membership updates

Congress has deputed central representatives in all 77 districts for the campaign. The party has asked them to work directly at the local level. The Congress has already organized an orientation program for the representatives who will be working in the one-month campaign that will be conducted from 1 May.

We have appointed representatives in 77 districts under the program. There is a situation where the TOR has been created and assigned regarding the work to be done by the representatives,’ said General Minister Paudel, ‘We have also passed the guidelines for that.’

According to him, the central representatives will lead the membership expansion campaign based on the guidelines passed by the party. According to Paudel, through ‘Ek Mahi Jarama Go Abhiyan’, Congress aims to make digital ‘Congress ID’ mandatory, update active membership in the ward, distribute new membership and engage in citizen dialogue.

“This is especially trying to tell all the members of the Nepali Congress to go to the place where they became a member, go back to the village, go to the village,” said Paudel. He also said that all the active members of the 14th Congress (except those who are in action) can renew their membership.

“All old members who have not been prosecuted under the provisions of the law can update their active membership,” said Paudel, “There is no prohibition against anyone saying that they can or cannot.”

General Minister Paudel informed that although the party did not accept anyone who is eligible according to the party’s constitution, the process was clarified. We have explained the process of updating. What is the process, I go to my own ward, I want to renew my membership,’ he said, ‘After saying this, they get an OTP number. And based on that OTP number, they update their membership.’

‘Congress ID’ for membership renewal

The Congress has prepared to implement the provision of filling up forms and taking photographs for old active members to update their membership. In order to collect the personal details of all the active members, the Congress is going to make a mandatory provision for filling in the form and taking photos during the membership update.

Out of 866,000 active members of the 14th Congress, even one lakh members of the Congress do not have phone numbers. Congress does not even have photos of 25-30 thousand active members.

To make it easier for active members to contact each other, for members to contact and coordinate with various structures of the party, and to receive information, the Congress is going to collect the phone numbers of workers during membership updates and distribution of new memberships.

The phone numbers of all the members were necessary to digitize the Nepali Congress. And the photograph was necessary to reveal the correct identity of the member,’ says General Minister Paudel, ‘The main responsibility of the organized party is to update the identity of the party’s members.’

After the active membership is updated, the ‘Congress ID’ will go to the ‘OTP’ number received by the Congress leaders-workers. “The mobile number that the member records in the form, the OTP number goes to that mobile number,” said Paudel, “the person who updated the ‘Congress ID’ membership will get it based on the number.”

Now only the person who gets ‘Congress ID’ will be an active member of Congress. Only people with ‘Congress ID’ will be allowed to participate in the ward session. ‘A person who has not received a Congress ID is not considered to have updated his membership,’ said General Minister Paudel, ‘a person whose membership is not updated cannot participate in the convention.’

Active people did not vote in the tree

The factionalism and infighting that has been rampant in the Congress for a long time has repeatedly weakened the party. The interference in the election has become like a structural problem of the Congress.

In the recently concluded House of Representatives elections, it has been seen that the Congress did not even get the same number of votes as the active members of the party in some areas. When active members do not vote, questions are sometimes raised about the membership within the Congress.

Looking at the preliminary data, the election review of the Congress has shown that the candidates put forward by the party in the House of Representatives elections got less votes than the active members in 17 constituencies.

The leaders say that it is necessary to review the issues that the active members do not want to vote for the Congress and correct the mistakes and weaknesses. “It is necessary to review why the party member did not want to create a social image that I am a member and did not want to vote for the party’s candidate and make corrections,” said General Minister Paudel.

Compulsory participation of members in shaping the party’s vision

The Congress has said that it is going to ‘digitalize’ the party with the aim of involving the active members to form the vision of the party. The Congress says that when the party is ‘digitalized’, the ideas and agenda will be informed to the working members, and it will be easier to take their suggestions when the agenda and ideas are made.

We are saying that we will select the candidates by conducting the primary election. Selecting candidates through primary elections means that the members themselves select the candidates,” General Minister Paudel said, ‘now the responsibility of the members is also going to increase. That’s why we tried to update the membership again to make responsible members.’

The Congress has made internal preparations to effectively apply the provisions of the statute on the distribution of new memberships, to open new memberships ‘digitally’, and to have easy provisions for new members to become members.

All these things have been informed to the central representative. They will go to the district and explain this to the representatives assigned to the ward,’ said Paudel, ‘in each ward, local technicians or some of our members’ technical friends will participate in this work.’

Congress has asked to take ‘OTP’ number and take a compulsory photograph while updating the active membership during the ‘Ek Mahi Jarama Jaon Abhiyan’ starting from 1st Baisakh.

Membership update launched by President Thapa

Active membership update will be initiated by President Gagan Kumar Thapa. Congress said that on the first day of the campaign, he will reach the ward where he has taken active membership on 1 Baisakh and update his membership.

The active membership of Sabhapati Thapa is in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-29. According to the party, office bearers, ex-officers, members of the central working committee should go to their respective wards and update their membership within the month of Baisakh.

‘Within the month of Baisakh, party members at every level from the center will have to present themselves in their respective wards and update their membership,’ said a statement issued by Acting Chief Secretary Krishna Prasad Dulal on 21 March.

Organizational issues within the campaign

During the campaign, the Congress will also conduct an analysis of the organizational activities of the party along with updating the active membership, review the election program with the people-youth and well-wishers outside the party.

The Congress has given the central representatives the task of preparing a report on the activities of the extended party structures from the district to the wards along with the condition of the fraternal organizations.

“The party has asked the representatives to mention the activities of the district committee, regional committee, state area committee, municipality and ward committees, whether the meetings are held regularly or not, what is the condition of the fraternal organization, everything in the report,” General Minister Paudel said.

According to him, the Congress has also asked the representatives assigned to the district to review the election with the citizens. They will review with citizens in a different way than with people within the party’s internal organizational system in the district.

About the review with the citizens, Paudel says, ‘It is said to go to a district with intellectuals, professionals, youth and get suggestions on why the Congress is running, what should be done to revive and strengthen the Congress.’

In the past, the intellectuals-professionals believed that this time, the situation is different. ‘It was a situation of believing in the past. This time it didn’t seem like that,’ said General Minister Paudel, ‘we have been asked to communicate with the enlightened elders of the civil society about what happened and submit a report to the center.’

Engaging the organization in social activities

Acting Chief Secretary Dulal has also said that the purpose of the campaign is to guide and facilitate the way related to conducting social and creative campaigns, running local government and preparing the upcoming budget.

General Minister Paudel also informed the central representatives that they have been assigned the task of communicating and coordinating between the party and the local government. This is the last budget of the local government. How can this budget be made citizen-friendly, there is a TOR to facilitate local leadership by coordinating with the party.’

The Congress has also planned to involve the party organization in social activities. For this, during the one-month campaign, the working committees from the district to the ward will be asked to make an annual calendar.

“Conducting social campaigns such as climate awareness, social discrimination, awareness against distortions and anomalies, informal sector workers, dialogue among youth returning from abroad, youth campaign against drugs, mother dialogue and enterprise campaign, civilization, culture and nature conservation campaign, education and health reform and making a calendar at the ward level,” said the procedure of the Congress passed for the representatives.

In the procedure, it is assigned the responsibility to inform the representatives about the campaign in the meeting of the working committee by consulting with the district and regional chairman, to coordinate with the district working committee and the regional working committee of the House of Representatives to appoint campaign representatives for each ward, to appoint congress representatives and general committee members and district level party leaders when appointing representatives, and to orient the ward representatives about the campaign.

Nepali Congress is the oldest democratic and socialist party of Nepal. In 2006, the Nepali Congress was officially born after the merger between the Nepali National Congress and the Nepal Democracy Congress.

Born out of the struggle against the Rana regime, the Congress played a decisive role in the 2007 revolution. In the first general election of 2015, the Congress formed the first elected government under the leadership of BP Koirala by winning the majority with the tree symbol.

Congress played a leading role in the student movement of 2036, Jan Andolan of 2046 and the second Jan Andolan of 2062/63 while continuously fighting for democracy during the Panchayat period.

The Congress, which is at the center of the democratic movement, considers itself not just a political party but an advocate of democracy, civil liberties and social justice. Built by historical personalities like BP Koirala, Ganeshman Singh, the Congress has been going through the stages of crisis, division and renaissance from time to time.