National
Disgruntled Unified Socialist leaders memo Madhav Nepal warning of a split
Their demands include annulment of office bearers and politburo elections.Post Report
Dissident leaders of CPN (Unified Socialist) say they have submitted a two-point memorandum to party chair Madhav Kumar Nepal, seeking to prevent a potential split in the party and warning of a growing threat of leaders and cadres defecting the three-year-old force.
Unified Socialist central committee members who were defeated in the office bearers’ elections in August submitted the memo to Nepal on Monday. They included Jeevanram Shrestha, Bijay Paudel, Hari Parajuli and Balaram Baskota.
“Our concern is for party unity,” Shrestha told the Post. “There are a few leaders who are considering splitting the party. To stop the party from disintegrating, the party leadership should address their grievances.”
The letter’s content is endorsed by more than a hundred party leaders who claim that the party’s 344-central committee is illegal.
Paudel, one of the leaders who submitted the memo to Nepal, claims that leaders such as Ram Kumari Jhakri, Keshav Lal Shrestha and other senior leaders support the message delivered to the Unified Socialist leadership.
Paudel also claimed that they were not in favour of splitting the party. “But, there are leaders who are dissatisfied with the party leadership and their way of functioning. This needs to be addressed to stop the split,” Paudel told the Post.
While the party statute and the general convention prescribed a 299-member central committee, a task force comprising party chair Nepal, senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal and General Secretary Ghanashyam Bhusal had finalised the names of 344 central committee members. Of them, 93 were already picked by the general convention.
The party held its 10th general convention in Kathmandu from June 30 to July 5. Making the central committee bigger than the given 299 strength has weakened the party, the memorandum says.
In a brief interview with the Post soon after being elected the party chair, Nepal had said the rest of the party secretariat would also be elected based on consensus. Then the process to elect the office bearers was halted for long. To conclude the convention by electing the office bearers, the party chose a vote.
During the office bearers’ election on August 27, the Nepal-Bhusal camp contested some major positions, and the Nepal camp leader won most of them.
Demands such as the annulment of office bearer and politburo elections have been presented in the two-point memorandum submitted by the party leaders.
The memorandum submitted to the party chair claims that various events since the general convention such as the election of office bearers and politburo sow the seeds of discord in the party. Three leaders have been blamed for the scenario.
“Three leaders who were unanimously elected from the general convention—party chair Nepal, senior leader Khanal and general secretary Bhusal violated the promise made before the convention representatives,” the memorandum says.
The dissidents also claim that some of the party leaders have urged Prime Minister and CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli to introduce the political parties ordinance to facilitate the party split.
“However, due to the unwillingness of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Prime Minister Oli has been hesitating to forward such an ordinance,” a Unified Socialist leader told the Post, asking not to be named for fear of reprisal.
Splitting a party currently has legal ambiguities. The Political Parties Act states that a group of party dissidents can split the organisation and form a new party if they can prove the support of at least 40 percent of the central committee members as well as at least 40 percent of the party’s lawmakers.
In August 2021, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government issued the ordinance and changed the provision, enabling 20 percent of the central committee and 20 percent lawmakers to form a new party. The law was then tweaked to help then-UML leader Madhav Nepal and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal’s Mahantha Thakur launch their parties.
However, the provision was nullified through an ordinance three years ago, immediately after the two parties split. After that, the government did not replace the ordinance, causing a legal void.
However, leaders close to party chair Nepal claim that if some leaders have concerns over the party’s activities, they will try to address their grievances “in a respectful way”.
“If there are problems in the party, they can be addressed,” Jagannath Khatiwada, the party spokesperson, told the Post. “However, our party is not on the verge of a split.”
The Unified Socialist was constituted in 2021 after splitting from the UML. It has 10 members in the House of Representatives.