Bibeksheel Sajha Party appears set to see a split, once again.

Party chair Rabindra Mishra and convener Milan Pandey have called separate meetings of the party’s central committee for Thursday, in what comes as a precursor of the split.

The party was reborn around nine months ago following an earlier split between Sajha Party and Bibeksheel. The two parties had earlier on July 26, 2017 merged to form Bibeksheel Sajha Party, but it had split after differences between its leaders.

Sajha Party was constituted by journalist-turned-politician Mishra, while Bibeksheel had metamorphosed into a party from a campaign launched by Ujjwal Thapa.

But the two parties decided to part ways in January 2019.

The two parties had again merged in December last year with an objective to develop a strong alternative force.

Thapa died in July of Covid-19.

Differences in the party surfaced after Mishra made public a document questioning the relevance of federalism and making a pitch for a referendum on secularism.

“Mishra has already split the party, first through his political proposal going against the constitution and the party statute and second, by doing what the party statute does not allow him,” said Pandey. “I don’t think there is any chance of us remaining together.”

The two parties had merged on July 26, 2017 in the run-up to the general elections but they happened to split almost two years of togetherness in January 2019.

In his proposal Mishra claimed that neither federalism nor secularism was the original agenda of the Nepali people and argued that “foreign forces” had a hand in making secularism a political agenda in Nepal. Most of the leaders and cadres of his party have been opposing his idea of scrapping federalism and holding a referendum on republican setup.

However, convener Pandey had countered Mishra’s proposal through another document.

Pandey said he was forced to call the meeting because there were differences in the agenda of the meeting as Mishra had already changed his opinion.

“Rabindra Mishraji's desire to break the Party is now unveiled. I feel really distressed at the moment. The unethical move, unprofessional attitude to back out from the agreement paper which he himself had signed makes me feel more furious [SIC],” Ranju Darshana, a member of the Party, wrote on Twitter on Monday.

She added that she would try to convert her anger into energy to change the current miserable reality brought upon by rigid, traditional politics.

Mishra has called the meeting at 12:30pm while Pandey has called his meeting at 11am.

Prakash Chandra Pariyar, a member of the party, said what Mishra said through the document was just a proposal and nothing and it should not affect the party.

“I think Pandey wanted to create pressure on the leadership,” said Pariyar. “They can present their views through the national convention.”

In the last elections, Bibeksheel Sajha Party failed to win a single seat in the federal parliament. It, however, won three seats in Bagmati Provincial Assembly.