Deuba Faction Heads to Court to Halt NC's 15th Convention

[Friday,August,21] | By Nepalyst | Nepal Politics

Sher Bahadur Deuba's faction has filed a Supreme Court writ to stop Nepali Congress's 15th General Convention, as General Secretary Pradip Paudel pleads for internal reconciliation to avoid a wider political crisis.

Nepal's oldest democratic party is once again fighting its battles in two places at once, inside its own organization and now inside the courtroom. The dissident faction of the Nepali Congress, led by former party president Sher Bahadur Deuba, filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court today seeking to immediately halt preparations for the party's upcoming 15th General Convention.

The move has pushed an already tense internal rivalry into a full legal confrontation, just as the party's general secretary is publicly begging both sides to step back from the brink.

How the Legal Challenge Came Together

The decision to go to court followed a three-day strategy meeting held at the Maharajgunj residence of Dr. Shashank Koirala. Coming out of that meeting, the Deuba-aligned faction finalized plans for both Deuba himself and former Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka to file separate writ petitions with the Supreme Court.

Their central demand is straightforward: a complete suspension of all convention logistics until the Supreme Court finishes an ongoing re-hearing over the party's official legal status and leadership legitimacy. Until that question is settled, the dissident faction argues, the party has no clear legal basis to proceed with a full general convention.

Where the Legitimacy Dispute Began

To understand why this matters so much, it helps to look back a few months. In April 2026, the Supreme Court validated a special convention that had installed Gagan Thapa as party president, effectively settling the leadership question, at least for a time.

That settled status didn't last. On August 6, 2026, the same apex court granted the Deuba camp permission to formally review that earlier ruling. For the dissident faction, that decision effectively reopened the entire leadership question, and they argue it means party authority has legally reverted to a disputed, unresolved state until the review concludes.

The Establishment Presses Forward Anyway

Despite the looming legal threat, the Thapa-led establishment faction shows no sign of slowing down. The 15th General Convention remains scheduled for October 2 to 5, 2026, in Kathmandu, and preparations are already well underway.

The leadership has deployed 85 election officers across all 77 districts nationwide, with lower-level ward conventions set to begin on September 9. That kind of large-scale, nationwide rollout suggests the establishment faction is treating the convention as a done deal, legal challenge or not.

A Plea for Peace From the Party's General Secretary

Caught in the middle of this standoff is Nepali Congress General Secretary Pradip Paudel, who issued an urgent public appeal from the party's central office in Sanepa calling for unconditional reconciliation between the two sides. Paudel didn't hold back in his criticism, rebuking both factions for pulling what should be internal democratic processes into the judiciary instead of resolving them within the party itself.

His message was blunt: political disagreements of this kind, in his view, need to be worked out through internal dialogue, not decided in courtrooms. He warned that if the fragmentation continues unchecked, it risks triggering broader political instability well beyond the party's own internal affairs.

What's at Stake Beyond the Party

Paudel specifically called on dissatisfied leaders and grassroots cadres alike to return to Sanepa and help hold the convention on schedule, framing party unity as essential to preventing a fractured opposition from destabilizing Nepal's wider governance. That framing reflects a real concern shared across Nepali politics: a divided Nepali Congress, as one of the country's largest parties, could weaken the broader checks and balances that a functioning opposition provides.

With the Supreme Court now positioned to rule on both the pending writ petitions and the underlying legitimacy review, the coming weeks look set to determine not just who leads the Nepali Congress, but whether the party can hold together at all ahead of its planned convention.

The Takeaway: The Nepali Congress finds itself trapped between a legal battle over leadership legitimacy and a ticking clock toward its October convention. Whether the party can resolve this through internal dialogue, as General Secretary Paudel is urging, or whether the Supreme Court ends up deciding its future, will likely shape the party's direction well beyond this single convention cycle.