Nepal, Oct. 27 -- Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa has directed the party's central members to end the practice of conducting politics from Kathmandu and instead work directly with party members and voters in their respective local areas.

Thapa said the party needed changes in its leadership and working style, making it clear that central members could no longer consider their responsibilities fulfilled simply by remaining in the capital.

He said the party was moving towards a system in which local party members would select candidates for the upcoming local elections, rather than having candidates chosen by the central leadership. The process would be incorporated into the party statute, he added.

Under the proposed system...