By Our Reporter Factional dispute has further widened in the Nepali Congress after the Ram Chandra Paudel-faction held a meeting of the party’s district chairs in Kathmandu. In the meeting that began at the party’s central committee office Sanepa, as many as 43 district chairs of the party were present, clearly showing that majority of the district presidents were with the rival faction. Although party President Sher Bahadur Deuba tried his best to foil the meeting, he could not. Moreover, most of the elected office bearers, including party general secretary Shasank Koirala and influential leaders attended the meeting. Now Deuba was said to be preparing to suspend a few district chairs for participating in the meeting, but that will be only counterproductive for him as such act will only weaken him in the concerned districts. Both the two rival camps, one led by Paudel and another by Krishna Sitaula, are angry with Deuba for taking unilateral decision to extend the term of the current CWC, including his term by a year and increase the departments to 47 from 28 as provisioned in the party statute. Again, Deuba wants to have his men in Nepal Tarun Dal and Nepal Students Union, the two powerful sister organisations of the party. The meeting of the district chairs suggested the party leadership to maintain unity in the party and correct the decisions taken by the CWC meeting which was boycotted by the Paudel faction. A CWC meeting that was boycotted by senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel had taken the unilateral decisions on December 27 prompting the Paudel camp to call the meeting of the district chairs. The meeting that was boycotted by the rival group had decided to extend the party Central Working Committee tenure for next one year, suspend some provisions of the party statute, form 47 departments against the provision of 28 departments mentioned in the party statute and extend tenure of Nepal Tarun Dal. “We were close to consensus on the disputed issues. But party president forwarded things unilaterally. It was the first time in party history that Deuba announced the general convention date and amended the party statue unilaterally. These decisions are not legal, so they need to be corrected,” Paudel said while addressing the gathering of the district chairs. NC general secretary Dr. Shashanka Koirala and leader Prakash Man Singh urged the district presidents to exert pressure on the party president to withdraw the unilateral decisions.