By Our Reporter
Now not only the leaders and workers of the Nepali Congress but also those from rival political parties as well as people are waiting for the 14th general convention of the oldest democratic party.
When the CPN-UML jamboree in Chitwan, which began massively with thousands of people thronging the bank of the Narayani River and turned out to be a fiasco after its closed session began in Chitwan as it ended without discussing the future course of the party but by endorsing the new committee proposed by party chairman KP Sharma and when the convention of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, which held more democratically than the UML’s, ended the domination of its chairman Kamal Thapa by electing RajendraLingden as its new chairman, people, party well-wishers and outsiders as well as the party rank and file are eagerly waiting to see whether the NC convention that is scheduled to begin on Friday will elect a new leadership or endorse the existing ones.
Now that the NC has almost completed its lower level committees’ convention, electing the representatives for the central level convention, leaders are now busy calculating their voters. Although the establishment faction led by party president Sher Bahadur Deuba managed to have their men elected as district chairmen as well as provincial presidents in more district committees and provinces than the faction led by Ram Chandra Paudel, the results of lower-level committees could not be crucial to winning the post of party president as proven in the 13th general convention. SherBahadurDeuba was elected party president five years ago although 47 of the 75 district party chairs were loyal to the camp led by Paudel. Thus, it will be too early to predict the victory or loss of a particular leader based on the elections to the district or provincial committees.
While sitting party president Deuba announced formally on Monday that he would be contesting election for the second term, Bimalendra Nidhi has already started canvassing by announcing his candidacy for the top party post. Nidhi was with Deuba until a few months ago as the latter’s trusty aide and party vice president.
However, a rival faction led by Ram Chandra Paudel has not yet chosen its candidate although it is said to be exercising to file a single candidate. However, going by the latest development in the camp, Prakashman Singh and Shekhar Koirala both are likely to file their candidacy calculating that the party president will be elected only from the second-round election, as the party president has to secure 51 per cent of the cast votes to get elected. Meanwhile, general secretary Shashank Koirala has supported Paudel’s candidacy.
Both the factions Tuesday held a meeting to finalise their candidates. The Paudel faction held a meeting at the Chaksibari-based residence of Prakashman Singh and the establishment faction at the PM’s residence in Baluwatar. But Paudel faction failed to pick a presidential candidate while both factions failed to prepare their teams. Several leaders have already announced their candidacy for the post of general secretary. Gagan Thapa, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, Dhanraj Gurung, Prakash Sharan Mahat and Minendra Rijal have announced their candidacy for the two posts of general secretary. Bal Krishna Khand, Ramesh Lekhak, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and others may also join the fray.
When both factions failed to have a single candidate for the president, the race has become interesting for onlookers. Again the camp of Krishna Sitaula could be crucial for the win or defeat of a faction, as the faction receiving support from Sitaula is likely to win the election this time as in the 13th general convention when Siataul was a candidate of president in the first round and supported Deuba in the second round. However, if any camp manages to file a single candidate while the other contests with two candidates, the group with the single candidate is sure to win the elections.
Meanwhile, the establishment faction won three of the six provincial committee chairs in the support of the Sitaula camp, while the Poudel camp won in two provinces and Sitaula in one.
Uddhav Thapa of Situla camp won with just two votes in Province 1 against Guru Baral. In Bagmati, Indra Baniya of Deuba camp won the party president in the support of Sitaula. Likewise, Bir Bahadur Balayar won in Sudurpaschim and Lalitjung Shahi in Karnali. While from Paudel camp, Shukra Raj Sharma won in Gandaki and Amarsingh Pun in Lumbini.
Kamal Thapa loses RPP chair to Rajendra Lingden
Rajendra Lingden has been elected chairman of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) by defeating strong man Kamal Thapa.
Lingden got 1,844 votes while Thapa got only 1,617 votes in the election held on Saturday. Of 3,874 cast votes, 413 were invalid.
However, for Kamal Thapa, the defeat came as a shock, as he had not expected that Lingden, who worked under him for years, could replace him in an election. Unable to digest the defeat, Thapa, who had been leading the party for the past 14 years, exhibited his apolitical behaviour. Although he was rejected by the party representatives for failing to lead the party as per people’s aspirations, he accused former King Gyanendra of intervening in his defeat. Unable to control his rage, he made harsh comments against the former King as well as princess Himani in his tweets.
Obviously, he should have smelt the unwanted result right from the day Lingden received backing from the party heavyweights like Prakash Chandra Lohani, Lokendra Bahadur Chand and Dhawal Shumser Rana, and he should have prepared accordingly. But he undermined the strength of Lingden in the party. Lingden’s popularity has increased after his election to the House of Representatives from Jhapa, as the only lawmaker to represent the party in the Federal Parliament. He is popular among the youth. Contrary to Lingden, Thapa always ran after power. He joined the republic government as a deputy prime minister in 2016 although he was supposed to work to reinstate the monarchy and the Hindu kingdom.
Even in the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli-led government, he was expecting a ministerial berth leaving the political agenda of the party aside. His power-centric attitude had irked the leaders as well as party supporters. Moreover, when masses were marching the road with pro-monarchy slogans before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation in 2020, RPP was seen nowhere although reinstating constitutional monarchy had been its main agenda. Irked by these activities, party cadres voted against him, but Thapa saw the former king as the only reason for his defeat. His baseless criticism of the monarchy could become costlier for him in the days to come. Even before the elections, Thapa spent his energy criticising actress Rekha Thapa, a general secretary candidate from Lingden camp.
He again did not show basic political nature by not appearing in the swearing-in ceremony of the new chair and other office bearers, not to talk about handing over the office. It was said that Thapa did not allow Lingden to use the office room of RPP chair. Probably, nowhere in the world, a defeated party chairman could claim for the office from which he was ousted. But Kamal Thapa did it showing his true political colour.
After his defeat, Thapaonly congratulated Lingden for his victory but accused former king Gyanedra of intervening in his defeat.
“I condemn the intervention by Nirmal Niwas (the residence of former King Gyanendra Shah) in the internal election of the party,” Thapa tweeted.
Likewise, Kunti Kumari Shahi has been elected General Secretary by defeating actress Rekha Thapa. Shahi received 2,008 votes while the popular actress got 1,640 votes.
Bikram Pandey, Buddhiman Tamang, Dhurva Bahadur Pradhan and Roshan Karki were elected to the post of vice-chairpersons and Kunti Kumari Shahi, Dhawal Shumsher Rana and Bhuwan Pathak were elected to the post of general secretary. The party has 199 members in its working committee. However, the elections were held only for the post of 149 members.
The remaining 50 members will be nominated by the chairman. After his victory, Lingden said there have been rare cases of handing over the political responsibilities to the young generation among the political parties of the country, but RPP did it. He also said that he would focus on building party organization.
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