Following the split of the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal led by Upendra Yadav on May 5, another fringe party is in the spotlight for similar reasons. According to party insiders, a group of dissidents has intensified activities with a plan to split the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist), and to return to the mother party–CPN-UML.

The dissidents are reportedly in negotiations with top UML leaders after they were either not selected as candidates or were defeated in the election of office bearers and Politburo members of the Unified Socialist.

“Though I am not fully aware of dissident leaders’ recent moves, several leaders are not satisfied with the party, especially after the election of the office bearers,” said Keshav Lal Shrestha, who fought for the position of deputy party chair and got defeated.

“Electing the party office bearers was not the mandate of the delegates to the general convention,” Shrestha told the Post.

“In the Unified Socialist, there were various groups based on their opinions. To strengthen the newly formed party, we had agreed to choose the leadership in consensus. However, when the top three leaders were selected unanimously, they later decided to hold the election of office bearers, against the convention’s mandate.”

During the election, top leaders issued different lists asking party representatives to elect those candidates as office bearers, Shrestha said. “When the party's top leaders themselves are guided by factional motives and cannot unify party members, why would other leaders still want to continue as party members?”

Even though Shrestha did not admit that he was considering quitting the Unified Socialist, he didn’t deny that some party leaders were considering the move.

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

After the general convention unanimously elected the chairman and general secretary, they had announced to pick office bearers in consensus. However, party insiders said leaders close to Nepal lobbied hard to hold an election for office bearers considering the party establishment’s strong hold on the party organisation.

During the office bearers’ election on August 27, the Nepal-Bhusal camp contested some vital positions, and the Nepal camp leader won most of them.

After being defeated as vice-chair, Ramkumari Jhakri, Ramchandra Jha, Keshav Lal Shrestha, and deputy general secretary candidates Amar Bahadur Thapa, Jeevanram Shrestha, and other leaders are allegedly considering rejoining their mother party, CPN-UML, according to a party insider.

Jhakri, who played a vital role in establishing the Unified Socialist in 2021, has for the last couple of months been lobbying for the party’s merger with the CPN-UML.

In an interview with the Post just ahead of the election, Jhakri acknowledged that the party should consider unification with the mother party, UML.

However, Jhakri on Sunday said that despite some leaders’ grievances towards the party leadership, there are slim chances of the party being split as yet.

“The way the party leaders are handling the party’s affairs has caused disenchantment within the organisation,” Jhakri told the Post. However, she denied that the dissident leaders were considering a break-up.

“We are in regular touch with some of the dissident leaders of the party, as reported in the media, but they are not in a mood to split the party,” says Somnath Pandey, a party secretary.

“The rumour of the party split spread mainly after three of the federal lawmakers of our party were not involved in the party’s election process,” Pandey told the Post. “But see no such possibility.”

Prem Ale, Kishan Shrestha, and Dhan Bahadur Budha, three of the party's ten lawmakers, do not currently hold any of the party positions. When Shrestha and Budha were the party's central members, Ale did not renew his membership.

Pandey claimed that Jhakri is one of the party leaders who has considered quitting. Jhakri said she had just arrived from Qatar after attending a function as a party leader, meaning that she was yet to get updates.

If there are some grievances of leaders, the party will try to solve them, Pandey said.

Jha, who is considered as a dissident leader, also denied that he was planning to quit the party.

“I have some reservations over how the election of office bearers was conducted,” Jha told the Post. “The party's top leadership circulated lists of the leaders to be elected, which was a wrong practice. But I have my differences with the UML too, so there is no possibility of me rejoining the old party.”

Jha said that since Ale, Shrestha, and Budha are directly elected lawmakers, they might have some issues with the party for not selecting them ministers when the party was in power. “Other leaders should have no issues.”

Ashesh Ghimire, a Politburo member, dismissed the talk as rumour.

“Yes, there certainly is gossip that some of our party leaders are considering rejoining the UML, but this won’t happen as outsiders expect,” Ghimire told the Post. “It has been reported that some of our party leaders also met with UML chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli but this is unsubstantiated.”

However, party insiders also claimed that in his meeting with some Unified Socialist leaders, Prime Minister Oli reportedly said that the government, before Dashain, will introduce an ordinance related to the political parties, making it easier for the dissidents to split the Unified Socialist.

Ramsaran Bajgain, press coordinator for Prime Minister Oli, however, rubbished the claim. “The government is not considering issuing any ordinance to split a party at the moment,” Bajgain told the Post.

Splitting a party currently has legal ambiguities. The Political Parties Act states that a group of party dissidents can split the organisation and form a new party if they can prove the support of at least 40 percent of the central committee members as well as at least 40 percent of the party’s lawmakers.

In August 2021, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government issued the ordinance and changed the provision, enabling 20 percent of the central committee and 20 percent of lawmakers to form a new party. The law was then tweaked to help then-UML leader Madhav Nepal and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal’s Mahantha Thakur launch their parties.

However, this provision was nullified through an ordinance three years ago, immediately after the two parties split. After that, the government did not replace the ordinance, causing a legal void.

Despite the legal ambiguities regarding the party's split, a group of leaders led by Ashok Rai of JSP-Nepal had split the party. With the support of six other lawmakers and 35 central committee members, Rai had split the party.

Their party’s legal status is still unclear as their move to split the party has been challenged in the Supreme Court and the case is still sub judice.