Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba said the infighting in the party led to the drubbing in the elections.

Speaking at Province 5 provincial-level party programme in Bhairahawa on Thursday, Deuba said contesting election with a divided mentality led to the defeat in the election resulting to the current situation. On the other hand, the two communist forces—then CPN (Maoist Center) and CPN-UML—contested the election as a single force, he said.

Deuba said improvement inside the party was not possible until it gets rid of intra-party tussles. While the leaders of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) are speaking against the government and the PM, NC leaders are busy in blame game within the party instead of pointing towards the government, he said.

The former PM said the government, backed by its two-third majority, is gradually becoming authoritarian posing serious risk to the country’s democracy. Accusing the incumbent government of encouraging murder and violence, Deuba said government was trying to protect the murderers of Niramala Pant of Kanchanpur.