Nepal Samajbadi Party (Naya Shakti) has elected Baburam Bhattarai as its chair through its first general convention held in Kathmandu. The former prime minister secured victory over his rival candidate, Netra Chapagain. Bhattarai garnered 761 votes while Chapagain received only 73.

Sonam Singh Syangtang was elected as the general secretary. The new vice chairs selected by the convention include Bhattarai’s daughter Manushi Yami Bhattarai, Durga Sob, Ishwari Rijal, Tek Bahadur Bathamagar, and Umesh Shah. As per the party statute, only nine out of 99 central committee members can be nominated.

Hari Prasad Rijal was elected unopposed as the treasurer. The election was held for 79 positions within the 99-member central committee. The newly elected executive committee took the oath of office and secrecy on Thursday.

Bhattarai, a key figure in Nepal’s Maoist insurgency, left the CPN (Maoist Centre) in 2015, shortly after the promulgation of the new constitution from the Constituent Assembly. He founded the Naya Shakti Party in 2016, aiming to establish an alternative political force. In May 2019, he merged the new party with the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum led by Upendra Yadav to form Sanghiya Samajbadi Party, which eventually in 2020 merged with the Rastriya Janata Party to form the Janata Samajbadi Party. After multiple mergers and divisions, Bhattarai along with Mahindra Ray Yadav, a senior Madhesi leader, registered yet another new party Nepal Samajbadi Party in 2022.