Kathmandu, March 10: After an unexpected defeat in the House of Representatives election, debate over leadership change has begun inside the CPN UML. Senior leaders including vice chairs Bishnu Poudel and Prithvi Subba Gurung, have started raising the issue of accountability for the election outcome and are calling for party chair KP Sharma Oli to step down.
Poudel hinted at this immediately after the defeat. In a long Facebook post on Saturday, he said the party must review its past mistakes, reform itself in line with public expectations, and reorganise its policies, leadership, organisation, and working methods. His statement also suggested he may lead internal discussions on leadership change.
According to a UML leader, Poudel had already signalled the need for debate on leadership while he was in Rupandehi during vote counting. As early results showed the party falling behind and disappointing results emerged nationwide, he called a meeting of available central committee members and provincial and district leaders. In that meeting, he reportedly said the party could not continue in its present form and that the chair should take responsibility for the election outcome.
After returning to Kathmandu, Poudel has continued consultations with leaders.
Vice chair Prithvi Subba Gurung has also shown support for the idea of leadership change. In discussions with leaders close to him, Gurung has said Oli should step down voluntarily. If he refuses, the party should move toward forcing a resignation.
Gurung has floated a possible plan: Oli could resign, an acting chair could lead the party until the local and provincial elections, and afterwards the party could hold an early or special general convention to elect new leadership. According to Gurung, the party cannot move forward under Oli’s leadership.
Deputy general secretary Yogesh Bhattarai said the election results show that voters peacefully rejected the party’s policies and leadership. He said the party must regain public trust through internal reform.
Bhattarai also said he and others had earlier asked the leadership to correct policies adopted after the Bhadra 23 and 24 incidents, but their efforts failed. He said the party must reopen discussions on those decisions.
He added that responsibility and accountability are basic principles in any public institution. In his view, the party’s poor performance cannot be blamed only on policy. Leaders and committees at all levels share responsibility.
While some leaders from the Oli camp have started raising the issue of restructuring, leaders from other factions are adopting a wait-and-see approach.
Before the election, Surendra Pandey, who had lost the general secretary race in the previous party convention, had already said that Oli should resign if the party performed poorly. After the results, he has not publicly raised the issue again.
Within the current leadership structure, only Gokarna Bista and Yogesh Bhattarai represent the non-establishment group. Bhattarai has spoken about restructuring policy and leadership, while Bista has remained silent.
Some leaders close to the rival faction say replacing one person will not revive the party. According to them, a broader leadership change is needed to reorganise the party movement.
UML had updated its leadership through a general convention held in late November before entering the election. Yet the party suffered a major setback, winning only a small number of direct seats and receiving weak proportional votes.
Chair KP Sharma Oli himself lost the Jhapa 5 seat to Rastriya Swatantra Party senior leader Balen Shah by a margin of 49,614 votes. None of the party’s eleven office bearers or two former office bearers who contested the election managed to win.
So far, UML has secured eight direct seats and leads in one constituency. It has received around 1.2 million proportional votes, and projections suggest the final tally may reach only about 1.5 million.
Compared to the previous election, UML has lost more than 47 per cent of its popular vote. Based on current results, the party may end up with only around 25 seats in the House of Representatives.
Many party leaders and cadres blame Oli’s leadership for the decline and say he should clear the way for new leadership.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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