The Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (JSP-Nepal), led by Upendra Yadav, is set for its Unity General Convention, which will commence on Monday in Janakpur, a month after the party suffered a split.

The federal chair of the JSP-Nepal, Ashok Rai, along with seven federal lawmakers and 30 central committee members, split the party on May 5 to form the Janata Samajbadi Party.

The party split was more visible at the centre, but it is said to have had a lesser impact on Yadav’s faction in the province so far.

Party insiders say the dissidents in provincial assemblies and party committees couldn’t get organised to form new committees as the registration of the new party at the election commission was immediately challenged in the Supreme Court. The court asked the commission and other authorities to put the process on hold, and the case is still sub judice.

When the court gives a verdict on the issue, the JSP-Nepal's fence-sitters may decide whether to remain with the party or defect to the new outfit.

Just a week before the unity general convention, the party suffered another setback as it had to give up the chief minister’s post in Madhesh Province when the erstwhile coalition partners–the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre)—withdrew their support to the government. During the floor test held on June 5 JSP-Nepal lawmaker Saroj Kumar Yadav, the immediate past chief minister of the province, fell 4 votes short from securing the position. When he garnered 50 votes in support, 53 members voted against him. In the 107-strong assembly, the chief minister has to secure at least 54 votes in support.

Upendra Yadav's parties, including the current JSP-Nepal, continuously led the provincial government for almost seven years until Satish Kumar Singh of the Janamat Party dethroned Yadav’s party from the chief ministerial position on June 7.

Though the recent party split and the dethroning of the Madhesh Province’s leadership can be blamed on the party leadership, according to analysts, the unity general convention poses little challenge to Yadav.

Because of the split, there are no leaders left in the party who’d challenge Yadav, Chandra Kishore, an observer of Madhesh politics, told the Post. “Therefore, the general convention should be a walk in the park for him.”

The party that held its statute convention last year adopted a policy of lobbying for a directly elected presidential system in the country. Likewise, the Madhesh-based party set the goal of fighting for a parliament with fully proportional representation. This is expected to direct policy at the unity convention.

However, experts question the sustainability of the policies adopted by the statute convention in the party's post-split situation.

“The policies adopted by the statute convention will remain intact,” Prakash Adhikari, a federal lawmaker of the party, told the Post. “The party division, which is sub judice in the Supreme Court, will not impact policy changes.”

Chandra Kishore, who has been following Madhesh politics for a long time, differs from Adhikari.

“Yadav is a political strategist. He acts as per the situation,” he said. “He will not necessarily act as per the party documents.”

The JSP-Nepal’s central committee in January, two months before the split, decided to hold the unity general convention in June. The party decided to organise the convention in order to consolidate the unity between various Madhes-based parties over time, party leaders said.

This is the first unity convention held after the merger of various Madhes-based parties, Manish Kumar Suman, spokesperson for the JSP-Nepal, told the Post.

The Tarai Madhesh Loktantrik Party, led by Mahantha Thakur; the Rastriya Madhesh Samajbadi Party, led by Sarat Singh Bhandari; the Tarai Madhesh Sadbhawana Party, led by Mahendra Yadav’ the Sadbhawana Party, led by Rajendra Mahato; the Madheshi Janadhikar Ganatantrik Party, led by Raj Kishor Yadav; and Anil Jha’s Nepal Sadbhawana Party merged to form the Rastriya Janata Party before the 2017 general and provincial elections.

The Rastriya Janata Party and the Nepal Sanghiya Samajbadi Party led by Upendra Yadav fought the 2017 elections with a tie-up in Madhesh but merged the parties in 2020 to form the Janata Samajbadi Party. When the erstwhile prime minister KP Sharma Oli issued an ordinance to split the Yadav-led party to counterbalance a rift within his Nepal Communist Party (NCP) formed after the merger of the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) following the 2017 election, the merger in the two Madhesh-based parties was hastened.

Before this, the only Madheshi party to hold the general convention periodically was the Nepal Sadbhawana Party. Gajendra Narayan Singh, who formed the Nepal Sadbhabana Council in 1985, turned the council into a party following the first people’s movement of 1990.

Yadav’s will be another Madhesh-based party to hold the general convention more than once, Suman said.

Article 269 (4) (B) of the constitution mandates a political party to hold its general convention at least once in five years. However, if the office bearers cannot be elected in five years due to a situation arising out of special circumstances, based on the statute of a political party, new leaders can be elected within six months thereafter.

The constitutional time frame is not mandatory for a new party or one formed after a split. As Nepal’s regional parties often suffer splits, they rarely hold the general convention periodically.

The Upendra Yadav-led Madheshi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) held its second convention in 2009, in Birgunj, just after the first Constituent Assembly election in 2008. The MJF was a rights-based organisation before it entered politics after the first Madhesh uprising of 2007.

JSP-Nepal spokesperson Suman said Yadav has led various political parties, but this is the second time an outfit he leads is holding the general convention.

The Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar-led Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Loktantrik) held its first general convention in Biratnagar in May 2016. The same year, Nepal Sadbhawana Party also held its general conventions in April.

The JSP-Nepal has invited foreign dignitaries to the unity convention. The party's foreign affairs department chief, Arjun Thapa, said delegates from India, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Spain, and Indonesia have already arrived in Nepal.

Invitations have been extended to various parties, except the Janata Samajbadi Party led by Ashok Rai, which splintered from the JSP-Nepal. The Nepali Congress, the UML, the Maoist Centre, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, the Rastriya Prajantra Party, and the CPN (Unified Socialist) are other parties that will participate in the Janakpur convention.

Party leaders say the opening ceremony will be held on Monday, whereas the closed session, which will discuss the party’s political documents, is scheduled for the subsequent days.