Around a month after the Socialist Front was formed, cracks are visible in member parties on their views regarding the parliamentary system.

The front was formed after years of discussions among the political parties. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the front’s longtime advocates, was, however, left out of it while the Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’-led Communist Party of Nepal was inducted into the bloc.

Chand is now claiming that the constituents of the front were united for the cause of doing away with the parliamentary system in favour of socialism but not all allies agree with him.

Fissures are apparent within the four parties as leaders from the Chand-led CPN and CPN (Maoist Centre) argue that the parliamentary system has failed while the Janata Samajbadi Party and the CPN (Unified Socialist) believe that they should move towards socialism by continuing with the parliamentary system.

Chand, in his recent interview with the Post, claimed that the members of the front have agreed to shepherd the country towards socialism with the realisation that the existing system is of no use anymore.

“We have concluded that the existing parliamentary system has failed to fulfil people’s aspirations and necessities. The country plunged into a series of crises,” Chand told the Post. “The fighting for power is not going to end unless the parliamentary system ends. The front was formed after the four parties came to this common understanding.”

But the question is whether the three other parties on the front have similar opinions.

According to leaders, the front will have party-like structures throughout the country with a national committee of four leaders each from the four parties.

The Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led CPN (Maoist Centre), the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist), the Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party and Chand’s Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) announced the front on June 19.

Leaders of the other three parties, however, said Chand wrongly interpreted the front while the members differ on the ways to achieve socialism.

“Actually, we all have agreed to achieve socialism via peaceful movements and that means struggles under the parliamentary system,” said Vijay Kumar Poudel, deputy general secretary of the CPN (Unified Socialist). “How can we go against the constitution—our brainchild? You know, we even split the party [CPN-UML] mainly to safeguard the constitution.”

Accusing KP Sharma Oli, the chairperson of CPN-UML, of trying to breach the constitutional provisions, a significant number of leaders led by Madhav Kumar Nepal quit the largest communist party in the country and subsequently formed CPN (Unified Socialist) in August 2021.

But one of the main constituents of the front, CPN (Maoist Centre), also shares views similar to Chand’s. The party that waged a decade-long insurgency to end the parliamentary system had to compromise with the parliamentary parties for the same system that they used to criticise as one in which “dog’s meat would be sold hanging goat’s head.”

“The constitution itself has defined Nepal as a socialism-oriented country and all the parties have accepted it,” said Dev Prasad Gurung, general secretary of CPN (Maoist Centre). “The question is whether to accept the parliamentary system or not.”

According to Gurung, communists are never in favour of the parliamentary system in principle and there are differences in opinion about the existing parliamentary system adopted through the new constitution.

“Some believe this is a traditional parliamentary system while many parties including ours are saying that it has mixed characters and therefore, it is an improved version of the parliamentary system,” Gurung told the Post. “Since all the parties have agreed to move ahead towards the path of socialism, it’s true that we don’t have faith in the age-old system.”

Meanwhile, another important constituent of the front, the Janata Samajbadi Party, has said they have not thought of any alternative to an existing parliamentary system.

“The socialist front was not formed to seek an alternative to the existing parliamentary system,” said Rakam Chemjong, a leader of the Janata Samajbadi Party. “Parties in the front have discussed the directly-elected executive head for political stability, but that doesn’t mean we are against the parliamentary system.”

Chemjong said the objective of the front was to strengthen federalism and democracy and ensure proportional inclusiveness in the country besides the fundamental rights that are enshrined in the constitution.

Many leaders of the front are wondering why Bhattarai, the chair of the Nepal Samajbadi Party (NSP), was left out from the front.

Some NSP leaders claimed that the Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre), who is also the prime minister, was reluctant to bring Bhattarai in, as he was well aware that JSP chair Upendra Yadav was not eager to make NSP a member of the front.

“I think Dahal was afraid that Bhattarai, who has been advocating for the Socialist Front for a long time, could become another power centre within the front to challenge him,” said a senior leader of NSP asking not to be named.

But Chand told the Post that Bhattarai should be a part of the front and the front will work to bring him in at the earliest.