Working class and people from marginalised class and ethnic groups formed the base of the party during the insurgency and their abandonment in order to appease others led to the defeat, he said.   

In an hour-long interview with the Post, Dahal admitted that he had overlooked the effects of party split, which occurred in June, 2012, due to ideological differences with CPN-Maoist, the way they viewed India, among others.   

The breakaway party CPN-Maoist boycotted the election and, in several places, actively formed working alliances with non-UCPN (Maoist) candidates to defeat their leaders. After the election, Dahal who also charged the Baidya party with trying to disrupt both the election campaign and the polls through violence, is now reaching out to Baidya with unification call. On Friday, for the first time since their split Dahal and Baidya came out with a joint statement against the proposed local polls.   

In the interview, Dahal pointed out that his party’s perceived compromise on national sovereignty issues was another reason for the poor showing in the vote. He seemed set to reach out to the Baidya Maoist for unification and willing to tweak his party position in the way it ideologically approaches India.  

Though the CPN-Maoist seems to be in unison with the UCPN (Maoist) that the “revolt” against the status quoist state is more a long-term ideological objective, both seem set to take a more strident approach to India, which the Baidya group still regards as the ‘principal foe’.

After the party’s seventh general convention held last year, the UCPN (Maoist) had decided that differences with India should be resolved politically and diplomatically.

“We concentrated more on diplomatic side but failed to communicate and mobilise the masses on issues of national sovereignty,” Dahal said, indicating that he was ready to revise his ideological approach to India if that helped bring the CPN-Maoist together.

Asked if the lavish life style of his party leaders and alleged charges of corruption had also drawn the Nepal voters’ ire, Dahal said: “There has not been corruption in the same level that other people accuse us for.” But he did admit the Orwellian deviation among the party leaders. Though the party came up with the code of conduct on several occasions in the past, the disciplinary measure made little headway, with the top leaders, including Dahal himself, taking lackadaisical approach to curb the excesses.   

There are still charges that there were massive levels of corruption in the Maoist army cantonments which received generous government assistance for years.  

Though the Maoist party has been relegated to a distant third, Dahal maintained that reduced strength in the second CA should not affect the constitution drafting process. The basic principles for the new constitution have been laid out in the 12-point understanding signed in 2005 between the Maoist and non-Maoist parties, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006 and Interim Constitution 2007 and parties cannot cross ‘Laxman Rekha’ set therein, according to Dahal.  

The Maoist party would not be obliged to remain in the CA if the NC and the UML tried to impose a new constitution crossing limits set by the said documents, he added.

Dahal outright rejected the possibility of agreement on holding the local elections before the new constitution. “If parties are ready to fulfill their commitment of drafting a new constitution, the local election is not possible before the constitution.”   

He offered three reasons to back his argument that local elections before the constitution would be a political blunder. First, it would distract the parties from the more important task at hand of writing the constitution; second, it would spoil the cordial relationship that now exists among parties; third, that the Interim Constitution has no provisions for local elections.

He dismissed calls for the leadership handover. Baburam Bhattarai, who resigned as Dahal’s deputy last year, has asked the chairman to step down taking moral responsibility for the election loss.  

“As someone who has been equally responsible for all major decisions in the party, including the decision to let a technocratic government hold the election,” Dahal said Bhattarai holds no political grounds to make accusations against him.  

Rather, he said, the party’s rebuilding campaign had started and it was important to take lessons from the election loss in order to re-energise the party, instead of looking for an alternative as suggested by Bhattarai.