Five key leaders of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) earlier this week promised CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a key leader of the ruling coalition their support, bringing out in the open their differences with party chairman Kamal Thapa just ahead of the parliamentary elections due next month.

The five leaders are said to be frustrated with Thapa’s move of reaching an agreement with the UML that mainly focuses on his own victory while leaving other leaders of the party in confusion, RPP-N sources told the Post.

The development comes at a time when Thapa was busy in his election campaign in Makwanpur. He is contesting the upcoming polls on CPN-UML’s election symbol.

“Actually, we had visited Khumaltar on Dahal’s invitation where we exchanged greetings of the festival and expressed our best wishes to Dahal, who has chosen the historic district [Gorkha] to contest polls,” said Suresh Acharya, who is one among those five leaders.

Acharya, who is also spokesperson of RPP-N said: “Dahal requested us for our support and we have given him a positive response.”

The other RPP-N leaders who met Dahal are the party’s Vice-chair Shyam Timilsina, General Secretary Keshav Shrestha, Joint General Secretary Daman Basnet and Treasurer Gyanendra Karki.

It isn’t immediately clear if the five leaders are dissenting from their party leadership.

RPP-N sources, however, say the leaders are irked by Thapa’s decision to contest on the UML’s election symbol in the November 20 polls to elect the House of Representatives.

The party sources further added that during their hour-long meeting with Dahal, the five leaders had expressed dissatisfaction over the move of their Chairman Thapa.

RPP-N has fielded its candidates in more than 90 seats of the 165-member House of Representatives and in 150 of the 330 seats in the provincial assemblies.

The party’s district committees had earlier decided to support UML’s candidates in one provincial seat in Bhaktapur, one federal seat in Kathmandu-5 as well as in three House of Representatives constituencies of Kaski. However, the five leaders have gone on to express their party’s commitment to support Dahal and major leaders of the ruling coalition in the places where no RPP-N candidates are contesting.

“We will support Dahal at Gorkha even if we have our candidate there and we have also expressed our commitment to support major leaders of other partners of the ruling coalition,” said an office bearer of the RPP Nepal, who was present in the Khumaltar meeting. “Actually we are frustrated with Thapa’s decision and want to send a message that we can also counter him.”

Thapa is one of the founders of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party that has been since its inception advocating reinstatement of Nepal as a Hindu Kingdom, which was abolished in 2008.

Thapa decided to part ways with the party after he lost to Rajendra Lingden as party chair in its general convention last December. He then formed RPP-N in February.

After he was defeated by Lingden, Thapa had accused former king Gyanendra of playing a role in his loss. He has been active in politics for decades and was the home minister when Gyanendra staged a royal-military coup in 2005.

A pro-Hindu and pro-monarchy politician, Thapa also served as a minister in different governments led by KP Oli and Dahal after the promulgation of the constitution that guaranteed Nepal as a secular federal republic. But, now Thapa has claimed that given Gyanendra’s recent activities, including the move “to support Lingden against him” the agenda of reviving the monarchy has become irrelevant.

Another office bearer who attended the meeting with Dahal told the Post that Thapa will be a part of UML once he wins the polls, legally, and therefore, the office bearers felt a need for taking a concrete decision on how to move ahead as they envisage that the party would become headless in such a scenario.

The RPP-N leaders have also expressed their commitment to support other leaders, including Maoist leader Pampha Bhusal, who is contesting from Lalitpur district as a common candidate of the ruling coalition.

Energy Minister Bhusal was also present at the meeting of the five RPP-N leaders with Maoist Centre Chair, Dahal.