After the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the third largest party in the House of Representatives, has also decided to contest the coming election single-handedly.

The Mahasamiti meeting of the Nepali Congress in February decided to contest the upcoming election in 2027 single-handedly. Several top UML leaders, including party Chairman KP Oli and others, have also vowed to contest the election single-handedly.

The Maoist Centre contested local, provincial, and federal elections in alliances with the UML in 2017 and the Nepali Congress in 2022.

A meeting of the party’s office bearers that concluded on Tuesday decided to contest the next elections single-handedly, said party spokesperson Agni Sapkota. “It was our conclusion that due to alliances with other political parties, we suffered a lot on ideological and organisational fronts,” Sapkota said.

During the office bearers meeting, several party leaders criticised the leadership for failing to connect with the general public in the last nine years. The Maoist Centre has been continuously in power for nine years, partnering with the Nepali Congress or the UML. Dahal was recently unseated by Oli, who was appointed prime minister on July 14.

In the party meeting, Dahal accused Oli of deceiving him. “I decided to join hands with UML with pure emotion and sentiment, but Oli betrayed us,” Dahal said in the party meeting while apprising the officer bearers of the problems that the party is facing, national and international situation and future strategy of the party.

“In order to achieve the goal of socialism, we must keep on putting in our best efforts and should try to bring the communists, left, and socialist forces together.”

In the four-day meeting, most of the leaders criticised Dahal for being power hungry, negotiating with Congress and UML to stay in power, and for making several hollow statements, like the one where he said he would bring upheaval in national politics through the party’s “magic” number.

“When we contest the elections under the alliance, we have to prioritise the agenda of the other parties with whom we align,” Sapkota said. “That is why we could not communicate our agenda to the people, so we have now decided to contest the elections single-handedly, so that we can establish our political direction and perspective.”

Some party leaders also cited the weakness of the party leadership. Dahal has been leading the party for almost four decades. “If given a chance, we are ready to lead the party,” said Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the party’s vice chairman. Almost all office bearers who spoke in the meeting stated that the party has lost its organisational base and ideological attraction and has become power-hungry while failing to address the grievances of the general public.

“We have decided to go to the public and highlight the good works done by the Dahal government,” Sapkota said.

He added that they would pressure the government to control corruption.

Almost all party leaders stated during the meeting that due to an excessive focus on power, the party had lost its connection with the general public and failed to address the grievances and demands of the people.

“People loved the alliance between the UML and the Maoist Centre, but the UML deceived us,” said Sapkota. “Though people liked the alliance between the two communist parties, we could not protect the unity, and now they deceived us and formed another alliance with the Nepali Congress.”

Though the party’s leadership stated that it would contest the coming elections single-handedly, the party would also continue advancing the Socialist Front. Some fringe parties who identify themselves as leftist and socialist forces have come under the banner of the Socialist Front led by the Maoist Centre.

Speaking with reporters in Dang on Tuesday, Shankar Pokhrel, the general secretary of the UML, said that “the drama in the name of left unity” has been over forever. Unity among the left parties has become a “folktale,” he said, “and we are not going to travel the same old route. The time has come for polarisation in politics, so we have to establish a two-party system. One front should be led by the Congress and the other by the UML.”

But the Maoist leadership is still hopeful of left unity. “We have to work towards the reorganisation of the communist parties,” Sapkota said. “We have to widen the scope of the Socialist Front so that we can achieve the goal of the left unity.”

The party has also decided to stay in opposition and play an effective role as an opposition party in the parliament, he added.

Moreover, the Maoist Centre chair Dahal would take a nationwide tour soon to understand the attitude of the general public towards the party. “The party chair will undertake the nationwide tour in order to listen to the grievances of the people,” Sapkota said. “The relations between the general public and the party have broken down, and this is the right time to go for the public.”

Dahal will undertake the nationwide tour after the conclusion of the party’s central committee meeting, which starts on August 10.

During Tuesday’s meeting, some leaders expressed their interest in taking the helm of the party, Sapkota said, but “there is no alternative to Dahal at this moment.”

Besides the party’s vice president, Shrestha, other senior party leaders like Janardan Sharma and Barshaman Pun, among others, have expressed their interest to lead the party, but they have failed to challenge Dahal’s leadership yet.