The ruling Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal split on Sunday after a majority of its lawmakers and over two dozen central committee members applied for the formation of a new party at the Election Commission.

A faction led by the party’s federal council chair Ashok Rai registered the application for a new party while the party's chair Upendra Yadav, who is also a deputy prime minister and minister for health and population, is on a trip abroad. Pradip Yadav, a lawmaker of the party, said 29 central committee members along with seven lawmakers have jointly applied to form a new party.

Of the party’s 12 House of Representatives members, seven—Rai, Sushila Sherstha, Pradip Yadav, Nawal Kishor Sah, Ranju Kumari Jha, Birendra Mahato and Hasina Khan—have stood in favour of the new party named ‘Janata Samajbadi Party’ (without the ‘Nepal’ of the mother party).

Leaders of the Rai-led faction claimed they had to revolt against the party leadership as Yadav was running the party in an autocratic way. “The chair ran the party unilaterally and disrespected lawmakers,” Pradip said.

Forest and Environment Minister Nawal Kishor Sah Sudi, who also quit the party, claimed that the need for a new outfit was felt after the chair tried to break the ruling coalition.

“We took this decision for the stability of the incumbent government,” he said. “The party chair [Yadav] is against this coalition but we will continue to support this government.”

The leaders with the party establishment, however, say the party has not split. Just a dissident faction parted ways, they claim. “Lawmakers alone don't make a party. A majority of party leaders are with us,” said Manish Suman, the party spokesperson. He added that less than 20 percent of the 300-strong central committee had left the party.

The split follows a long-standing discontent in the party. Only after the pressure from the other faction, had the establishment side been ready to hold its general convention.

Mohammad Istiyak Rai, a leader of the party, had decided to challenge Yadav, the party chair, in the upcoming general elections. However, the party split before the convention could be held.

Rajendra Shrestha has been named the federal council chair of the yet-to-be-legalised party, which has announced a 31-member central committee. Rai is the chairperson while Renu Yadav has been named the joint-chair. It has four vice-chairpersons, a general secretary, deputy general secretaries and secretaries, among others.

Though the Rai-led faction has soght recognition as a new party under the Political Party Act, there are no clear legal provisions to guide the party formation process after a split in an existing one.

On August 18, 2021, the then Sher Bahadur Deuba government had issued an ordinance to amend the Act to ease the split of two parties—the CPN-UML and the Janata Samajbadi Party.

Revising a provision in the Act, which requires the support of 40 percent members both in the parliamentary party and the central committee in order to split the party, the ordinance lowered the bar to 20 percent in either of the committees.

On August 26 the same year, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the UML and Mahantha Thakur of the Janata Samajbadi Party registered new parties, the CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, respectively.

Two days later, the ordinance was repealed, having served its purpose. The provisions amended by the ordinance have become void after it was repealed. Though a bill to reactivate those provisions of the Act has been registered in Parliament, it is yet to be endorsed.

“We have received the application [on new party registration],” said Ram Prasad Bhandari, an election commissioner. “A proper decision will be taken after evaluating the existing legal provisions.”

Before the split, in the 275-member federal lower house, the ruling parties had 154 seats—16 more than the magic number of 138.

Among them, the CPN-UML has 79 seats (including the Speaker and one suspended lawmaker), the CPN (Maoist Centre) has 32, the Rastriya Swatantra Party has 21, the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal had 12 seats while and the CPN (Unified Socialist) has 10 seats.