The Nepali Congress has put women in some of its top posts, but its own numbers fall short of its own rule. Women won 69 of the 231 elected seats on the central committee, which is 29.87%. The revised party statute says women must make up at least one-third of executive committees at every level.
None of those 69 women won an open seat. Every one came through a reserved or inclusion category.
The numbers
The full central committee has 297 members: 231 elected and 66 nominated by the party president. Gagan Thapa can use his nominations to bring in more women. If the elected total stays at 69, about 30 more would be needed to reach one-third.
Who won top posts
The 15th general convention ran in Kathmandu from October 4 to 9, 2026. It changed the party statute to guarantee women more places at the top. Three women won office-bearing posts in the women’s category:
- Pushpa Bhusal, vice-president
- Dila Sangroula (Pant), general secretary, reported as the first woman to hold that post in the party
- Pratima Gautam, joint general secretary
The new rules also add more joint general secretary posts and set aside one of the president’s nominations for a woman. Reserved posts get women into the room.
The open-seat problem
Twelve women ran for unreserved positions on the central committee, and all of them lost. So women’s route to the top still runs mostly through quotas.
Background: three kinds of representation
It helps to keep three ideas apart. Reserved representation guarantees women specific seats. Open competition tests whether they can win without that guarantee. Real influence is about who decides policy, nominations and resources. A party can improve the first and still lag on the other two.
