Deuba Given Separate Office as Nepali Congress President in Chundebi, Group Rejects Gagan Thapa’s Leadership

Dragon Media Correspondent

The faction aligned with former Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba has set up a separate office for him in Chundebi, Kathmandu, presenting him as the party president amid an ongoing dispute over the official leadership of the Nepali Congress.

Deuba returned to Nepal on Thursday after spending around five and a half months abroad and travelled directly from Tribhuvan International Airport to the contact office in Chundebi, where leaders and supporters close to him welcomed him.

A separate office has been prepared for Deuba with a nameplate identifying him as “President.” He is also being presented as the party president within the premises of the contact office.

The move further signals that the Deuba faction does not accept Gagan Kumar Thapa, who emerged as party president from the Special General Convention, as the legitimate head of the Nepali Congress.

The Deuba faction has become more active after the Supreme Court granted permission to review its earlier ruling related to the Election Commission’s recognition of the Gagan Thapa-led leadership. However, permission for judicial review does not in itself suspend the earlier ruling.

Nepali Congress leader Dr Shashank Koirala also claimed at the airport on Thursday that Deuba remains the legitimate president of the party. At the same time, he said efforts to reunify the Nepali Congress would continue.

The Deuba faction is scheduled to hold a national gathering on Friday. According to leader Prakash Sharan Mahat, Deuba is expected to inaugurate the event. The gathering is being viewed as an important platform for the faction to demonstrate its political strength and clarify its future organisational strategy.

In a public appeal issued shortly after returning to Nepal, Deuba called for internal disagreements and frustration within the party to be resolved without delay. He also stressed the need to bring all sides together and said he had returned not to seek power, but to strengthen national unity.

The situation has therefore produced a visible contrast: while Deuba has publicly called for party unity, his faction has simultaneously established a separate office presenting him as president and has continued its own political and organisational activities.

The developments indicate that the question of official leadership and internal unity within the Nepali Congress remains unresolved. The final outcome of the Supreme Court’s review process is expected to have a decisive impact on the legal dimension of the party’s leadership dispute.