Almost two months after concluding the party's general convention, the CPN (Unified Socialist) on Monday decided to elect its office bearers through a vote.

“Discussions were held for long on whether to appoint the office bearers based on consensus or through a vote,” Jeevanram Shrestha, a leader of the party, told the Post. “Eventually the party has now decided to elect them through voting.”

On the second day of the central committee meeting on Monday, the party decided to hold the election for the office bearers.

The party’s election body published the two-day election schedule that started Monday.

As per the timeline, nomination for the position of office bearers started on Monday while voting will start on Tuesday afternoon.

The party's general convention, held in Kathmandu from June 30 to July 5, unanimously elected Madhav Kumar Nepal as chairman, Ghanashyam Bhusal general secretary, and Jhalanath Khanal as senior leader.

The party’s statute mentions that it will have 21 office bearers. Since the party charter does not acknowledge the senior leader as an office bearer, the organisation now has to elect 19 office bearers to fill the vacant positions.

After the general convention elected the chairman and general secretary unanimously, the office bearers were expected to be appointed based on consensus. However, party insiders said leaders close to Chairman Nepal lobbied hard to hold an election for office bearers.

In a brief interview with the Post soon after being elected as party chair, Nepal had said the rest of the party secretariat also will be elected based on consensus.

“We are trying to elect the secretariat members based on consensus,” Nepal had said. But, the process to elect the office bearers halted for long. When it started, the party decided to go for the election.

“When the general convention was concluded in consensus, General Secretary Bhusal and senior leader Khanal were in favour of appointing the office bearers unanimously,” a party leader told the Post on the condition of anonymity. “Chairman Nepal, who commands a strong majority in the central committee, however, lobbied to elect them through voting.”

The party’s central committee members will vote to elect the office bearers. At present the Unified Socialist has a 344-member central committee. A total of 93 central members were announced at the general convention held in July first week, while the remaining 251 members were selected on August 2. In the second phase, a task force comprising Chairman Nepal, senior leader Khanal and General Secretary Bhusal had finalised the names of the central members.

As of Monday evening, Rajendra Pandey and Pramesh Hamal, who are close to the party chair, are preparing to contest for the post of senior vice chair position. The Khanal-Bhusal group is adopting a strategy not to field any candidate for this position and support one of them, says a party insider.

“Beduram Bhusal, who became general secretary immediately after the formation of the party, was an aspirant for the post of senior vice chair,” the leader said. “However, he has agreed to support Hamal.”

Chairman Nepal commands a strong majority in the party while Khanal and General Secretary Bhusal lead a separate faction. But the Nepal-led faction is divided into sub-factions which are led by Pandey and Hamal. The two leaders–Pandey and Hamal–are in a race to become the senior vice-chair. Apart from Beduram Bhusal, Hamal also has the support of senior leader Khanal, said multiple party leaders.

Party insiders expect tough competition for the vice chair of the Madhesh Province as well. Ramchandra Jha and Dharmendra Prasad Sah are contesting for the position.

Former deputy general secretaries Bijay Paudel, Prakash Jwala, Ganga Lal Tuladhar and Jagannath Khatiwada are contesting for the position of vice-chairs. Paudel and Jwala are from General Secretary Bhusal’s camp while Tuladhar and Khatiwada are from chairman Nepal’s camp. The party’s statute has a provision for seven vice-chairs.

Likewise, former secretaries of the party, Birodh Khatiwada, Ramkumari Jhakri, Hari Prasad Parajuli, Nagendra Chaudhary, Rajendra Rai, Ambar Bahadur Thapa, Jeevan Ram Shrestha and Garima Shah, are contesting for the deputy general secretary positions.

Deputy general secretary candidates Jhakri, Thapa and Khatiwada are from Nepal’s faction and are close to Rajendra Pandey’s team. Parajuli, Shrestha and Shah are close to General Secretary Bhusal. Chaudhary and Rai, though are from Nepal’s camp, try to maintain neutrality.

According to party leaders, there are more than 50 aspirants for the seven positions of secretaries.

The party now has to elect a senior vice-chair, seven vice chairs including one woman, four deputy general secretaries, and seven secretaries. Prior to the general convention, the party had amended its statute to increase the number of office bearers to 21, besides the senior leader.

A group of CPN-UML leaders led by Nepal split the country’s largest communist party to form the CPN (Unified Socialist) on August 25, 2021. Nepal earlier served as the chief of the CPN-UML for 15 years. They split the party, protesting against UML chair KP Sharma Oli’s decision to dissolve the House of Representatives twice accusing him of trampling the new constitution and instigating political instability in the country.

Following a poor performance in local and general elections in 2022, the Unified Socialist is now struggling to retain party members. In the federal and provincial elections, it failed even to secure the status of a national party. The party won only 10 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives in the general elections.

Despite holding important portfolios in the federal and provincial governments, the party leaders find it difficult to stop its cadres from rejoining their old party, the UML, let alone attracting new members.