Deuba is likely to become weak in the party

By Our Reporter Nepali Congress, the oldest democratic party of Nepal, was the largest party of Nepal until December 21, 2017, when the second phase elections to the Federal Parliament and Provincial Assemblies Concluded. But once the results of FPTP elections started coming out, the party was pushed to a distanced third position after the CPN-Maoist Centre under FPTP category. Although it climbed to the second position after the results of PR elections were made public, it’s strength has been half of the CPN-UML and almost equal to the Maoist Centre. NC now has only 63 lawmakers in the 275-member strong House whereas UML has 121 and the Maoist Centre 53 members. Once the two communist parties get united as per their plan, they will have nearly a two thirds majority in both Houses. Of Course, NC has never become so weak as it has become now, and the Sher Bahadur Deuba’s incompetent leadership is blamed for its disappointing performance in the elections, although Deuba and the leaders of his coterie are not ready to accept this reality, and they intend to move ahead by suppressing the rival group in the party. Despite the humiliating defeat, president Deuba did not step down, instead contested the election of the parliamentary party leader and won with a big margin, which was not unnatural as almost all those who reached the House of Representatives under PR category were members of his coterie. However, of late there are signs that Deuba might face tough opposition from the rival camp after the two factions led by Ram Chandra Poudel and Krishna Sitaula got united against Deuba’s leadership. The first impact of the unity between Poudel-Sitaula camps was noticed in the election of the Nepal Teachers Association with a clean sweep of Poudel-Sitaula factions in all posts. When energetic youth leaders like Gagan Thapa, Chandra Bhandari, Dhan Raj Gurung, Pradeep Poudel and Guru Ghimire are strongly opposing the leadership of Deuba, senior leaders like Kul Bahadur Gurung and Arjun Narasingh KC, who were with Deuba before the elections have also started voicing against  Deuba. Moreover, when both Poudel and Sitaula have already held separate meetings of the leaders loyal to them, Deuba is likely to face difficulties in the days to come. Although leaders like Bal Krishna Khand, Bimalendra Nidhi and Prakash Sharan Mahat have been supporting Deuba, leaders and cadres with public base and voters in general want Deuba’s ousting.  As such, Deuba is likely to lose his grip in the party sooner or later. With the growing pressure from the rival, he is also preparing to hold a meeting of the leaders loyal to him, but such meeting will not send a positive message to the public. Instead, it reflects the widening rift in the oldest democratic party. As every voter knows well that Deuba’s unpopular decisions and upper-hand of his spouse Arzoo Rana in some controversial decisions, the traditional supporters of the NC will not feel any relief unti Deuba quits the leadership. As voters are the base of victory for any party, the NC leadership seems to be undermining this very fact, which will distract the voters. Hence, it looks likely that the NC will soon become free from Deuba’s incompetent leadership.