The news of former President Bidya Devi Bhandari renewing her party membership has become a matter of discussion in Parliament. The ninth general convention of CPN-UML held in Kathmandu in 2014 had elected Bhandari a vice-chair of the party.

After Bhandari was elected the country’s President in 2015, she gave up the party membership as mandated by the constitution. She secured the second term in the presidential election following the 2017 parliamentary polls. After Ramchandra Paudel replaced her as the head of state last year, Bhandari has been relieved of duties and has been enjoying state facilities as a former President.

Parliamentarians have started asking: Can a former head of state who has been enjoying state perks return to active politics? They have also demanded that the government look into the services provided to the former head of state.

Speaking in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Nepali Congress lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada, who chairs the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, said the government should clarify whether former President Bhandari qualifies for state benefits after renewing her UML membership.

Media reports suggest the former President renewed her membership in a political party, Khatiwada said. “After the party membership renewal, can she still enjoy state benefits?” he questioned. “What is the state’s take on this?”

He also demanded the government inform Parliament about the arrangements made for the former President.

The Constitution of Nepal is silent on whether a former head of state can engage in active politics after leaving office.

However, this is a question of constitutional ethics, says Raman Shrestha, a former attorney general.

“If we look at the examples of other countries, a former head of state does not return to active politics, let alone by reclaiming the membership of a party,” Shrestha told the Post. “It is a question of ethics.”

CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Pampha Bhusal said the question of morality only applies to the one who sticks to it. “If we see the history of Nepal, we find that a person who has become the prime minister has become an ambassador and taken other responsibilities,” Bhusal told the Post. “It is a personal decision whether to rejoin active politics after serving as the head of state. Let’s not make too big a fuss about this.”

However, political observers and analysts say that when a person who has been receiving state benefits for their former role returns to active politics, it raises serious questions about that person and the party that gives the membership.

Nepal has yet to formulate policies on the perks and benefits to be provided to a former head of state. The current practice is for the Cabinet to decide on such perks, according to an officer at the home ministry.

“The former President gets a monthly stipend of Rs50,000. Another Rs200,000 is provided in monthly house rent,” said the officer. “If the former President has a house of their own in Kathmandu and decides to stay there, they get Rs100,000 a month in maintenance expenses.”

They also get security personnel. However, the ministry officer refused to disclose the ‘sensitive’ security details.

Ram Baran Yadav, the first President of Nepal, claims funds for housing from the government whereas Bhandari lives in her own house. Even before retiring from presidential duties, Bhandari had decided that she would go back to her own house, fuelling speculations about her plan to return to active politics.

Bhandari is the widow of the late communist leader Madan Bhandari, who provided the ideological line to the UML. Most of Nepal’s major communist forces, the Maoist Centre led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the CPN (Unified Socialist) led by Madhav Kumar Nepal acknowledge the role of Madan Bhandari in advancing the communist cause in the country.

UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, Nepal and Dahal have once been together in a single political party after the 2017 elections. Whenever the communist forces form a coalition, as the three parties are doing now, the issue of their strategic partnership comes up.

The Nepal Communist Party (NCP), as the unified force was called, saw a split when Dahal and Oli jointly chaired it but Oli is often criticised for being chiefly responsible for the unified party’s failure given his leadership style. Now when the three forces are rumoured to be planning to contest the 2027 elections on the same side, the chances of former President Bhandari returning to politics to potentially unite the parties as a leader acceptable to all are said to be high.

Bhandari reportedly renewed party membership on the Nepali New Year day, more than two months ago. Madhav Dhungel, the secretary of the central organisation department of the UML, took to social media on June 18 to clarify the issue.

“There is no doubt that Bhandari became President as a UML leader. But then she had to distance herself from the party, and she did so,” reads the facebook status of Dhungel. “However, she has the right to provide guardianship to the whole country, the Nepali people and the political party that she nurtured.”

“Whether to return to active politics is a personal matter. If she [Bhandari] does so, she won’t do so on the sly,” Dhungel writes. “If she desires to be active in politics, she will undoubtedly do so in the UML.”

On the question of Bhandari renewing her party membership, Kashinath Adhikari, the head of the party’s central organisation department, said he was not in a position to give a definite answer.

“Membership in our party is renewed at the start of the [Nepali] new year,” Adhikari told the Post. “Who all have renewed party membership will be known only after going through the final list of those doing so in the given time.”