The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP)’s swift rise as a political force is perhaps the biggest story of the November 20 polls. It has also made people curious: What is its governing ideology and political line?

RSP President Rabi Lamichhane claimed in a recent interview with Onlinekhabar, a news website, that the party is right of centre. However, Shishir Khanal, a party leader elected from Kathmandu-6 in the federal election, claimed otherwise, in an interview with Galaxy TV. He said the party is left of centre. Many find such an “ideological fog” in what will be the parliament’s fourth biggest force troubling.

Ideology shapes a party’s position on key issues but defining it is not easy. Political analysts reckon the RSP may struggle to determine a clear political line as its leaders come from different professional backgrounds rather than emerging from a uniform political orientation.

“The party’s positions on domestic, foreign and economic issues are largely determined by its underlying ideology,” senior journalist Dhruba Hari Adhikary told the Post. Going forward, the RSP has to have a solid ideological standing to translate public aspirations into reality. “This is why the party’s fuzzy ideological orientation is rather worrisome.”

Another political analyst Rajendra Maharjan said that the party has no clear ideological or political threads to bind it together. “To become a viable unified force, the party has to clarify its ideology and stance on vital political issues,” he said.

Though critics claim the RSP lacks ideological coherence and clarity, its leaders defend themselves, saying the party is still in its infancy. RSP leader Santosh Pariyar said: “The party was still very new when it contested the polls and hence there was not enough time to clearly define our political ideology. But we will soon unveil it.”

Pariyar also defended the differing stances of Lamichhane and Khanal, saying it was natural for a new party to work out its ideology by taking into account different points of view.

Political scientist Bhaskar Gautam offers another perspective. For him, assumptions about whether the RSP has a political ideology are redundant. “No person can function without ideology, and an organisation, a coming together of such persons, is not without ideology as well. Thus the RSP too has its political ideology.”

The election manifesto is the party's only public document to date. The manifesto has proposed less expensive and agile federalism, claiming that the current federal framework is costly. It has also proposed a system of governance where chief ministers of provinces are directly elected. Bafflingly, it rejects the provincial legislatures even though it supports a system of powerful chief ministers.

The party’s decision not to field any candidate in the provincial elections and party chair Lamichhane’s move to skip voting for provincial candidates fueled speculations about the party’s stance on the federal system.

Though the party has its differences with the country’s current federal structure, it does not mean we oppose the federal system in its entirety, Pariyar, the RSP leader, added. “What we oppose is the way traditional political parties have been implementing federalism.”

In the country’s history, many new parties have emerged as challengers to the big parties and fared well in the polls. But they soon disappeared into thin air as they could not turn their highfalutin promises into actions. Observers thus advise the RSP not to repeat such mistakes.

For example, the Bibeksheel Sajha Party, which claimed to be the flagbearer of alternative politics in Nepal, is now not even in the scene. The party had created a buzz in the 2017 polls, garnering a sizable support of urban youths. But now, it has split and withered even before it could take a firm ground.

The proposal of party chair Rabindra Mishra in July last year for a referendum on secularism and abolition of federalism riled his party leaders, and soon, the party split. Mishra then joined the right-wing Rastriya Prajatantra Party to contest the 2022 polls.

Current Bibeksheel Sajha Party chair Samikchya Baskota said the emergence of the RSP resembles Bibeksheel Sajha’s. Both were formed before elections and both contested polls trying to cash in on people’s desire for change. “Bibeksheel created a buzz in 2017. But when it came to determining the party’s political line on federalism, secularism, constitution and other vital political issues, the strong yet differing professional, educational and ideological orientations of leaders started creating problems. Their ideological differences clashed,” she told the Post.

Whether the RSP leaders can settle their big ideological debates will be the party’s big challenge in the days ahead, according to Baskota. “Otherwise, the RSP too could go the Bibeksheel Sajha way.”

Not only the Bibeksheel Sajha Party, Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai also dubbed his newly formed Naya Shakti Party an alternative political force in 2016. But in the 2017 elections, only Bhattarai made it to the parliament from the party.

After the promulgation of the constitution in 2015, Bhattarai declared that Maoist ideology had now become redundant and tried to cash in on regional and identity-based politics. In 2019, he merged his party with the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum, which again merged with the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal in 2020 to form the Janata Samajbadi Party. Then, the JSP split.

Now, Bhattarai has formed a new party, the Nepal Samajbadi Party, which contested the polls on the Maoist Centre’s symbol. In seven years, Bhattarai has come a full circle to join hands with the Maoists.

Government formation is likely to open a pandora’s box in the RSP, say political watchers.

Maharjan, the political analyst, said the government will again be formed under the leadership of the dominant political parties, and the RSP, if it joins, will have to learn to adjust itself in the thick of things. Maharjan does not think the RSP leadership will be content to sit in the opposition. But, he asks: “How will they adjust themselves in a government led by the parties they had fiercely criticised in the run-up to the polls?”

Maharjan fears a possible split if the RSP leaders don’t agree with each other on critical issues. “Their differing interests may clash,” he said.

Lack of robust organisational strength could be another problem for the party.

“The RSP’s first challenge will be to form an efficient party organisation,” Gautam told the Post. “A party’s organisational structure and strength determine its sustainability.”

Maharjan echoed Gautam. According to Maharjan, the RSP must form strong organisations—as, otherwise, it would turn into just another leader-centric party.

While political observers think the party should have strong organisations, the party itself is opposed to creating sister wings. “Forming sister wings will drain the party’s time and resources, which it could use for service-delivery. Also, it would lead to needless politicisation,” said Ganesh Karki, the party’s press coordinator and central member.

RSP leaders also claim to have a binding force. “The Constitution is the binding force of our party,” said Karki.

RSP has locked in seven FPTP seats of the lower house and garnered more than 11 percent PR votes in the November 20 federal elections.