The issue of the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s future leadership has resurfaced.

This follows the Supreme Court order on Friday to uphold the Tulsipur High Court’s decision to send RSP chief Rabi Lamichhane to custody in a case of cooperatives fraud and organised crime.

RSP leader Yagya Mani Neupane, an advocate, has proposed filling key vacant party positions, including vice-president. Neupane’s proposal comes in response to the court order, which could result in a prolonged absence of founding party president Lamichhane from party activities. Neupane argued that it is vital to fill the vacant posts to ensure the party’s continued functionality until its next general convention.

In a letter addressed to Acting President DP Aryal and Vice-president Swarnim Wagle, Neupane has urged the party to appoint a new general secretary, deputy general secretary, central committee members, and the parliamentary party leader.

Leading the fourth-largest party in Parliament right now is Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, the RSP’s deputy parliamentary leader.

Following Lamichhane’s imprisonment, Aryal assumed the role of acting president. But the party has yet to appoint a woman vice-president. Additionally, the post of general secretary became vacant following Mukul Dhakal’s expulsion from the party. Plus, a deputy general secretary’s position has been vacant since Sumana Shrestha’s resignation.

Kabin Burlakoti is the acting general secretary, and Manish Jha is the party spokesperson. Dhakal had both the responsibilities until his removal over a disagreement with the leadership on party reforms.

“Before Acting President Aryal and Vice-president Wagle visited Lamichhane in Rupandehi on Saturday following the Supreme Court’s verdict a day earlier, I had submitted my recommendations on the next steps the party should take,” Neupane told the Post.

“As the chances of Lamichhane’s early release are slim, the party cannot continue to operate on an ad hoc basis. It is essential to fill the vacant positions to ensure the party remains functional and effective.”

A division bench of Justices Nahakul Subedi and Balkrishna Dhakal had scrapped Nikita Paudel’s habeas corpus petition demanding the release of her husband, Lamichhane.

“Based on the immediately available evidence, it could not be reasonably believed that the defendants were innocent of all alleged offences,” the court said in the order.

Lamichhane is also accused of defrauding millions of rupees from various cooperatives across the country.

But the party does not seem to be in a mood to heed Neupane. Members of the RSP secretariat question Neupane’s credentials to make such demands, as he is not even a central member of the party.

Meanwhile, acting party president DP Aryal said he had not seen Neupane’s suggestion.

“The party will examine if the suggestion is in line with the party’s statute. If yes, it could be discussed, but if not, the central committee will deliberate on a different way out,” Aryal said.

Meanwhile, party leader and Member of Parliament Hari Dhakal said the party’s future course of action will only be known after the central committee meets on Sunday. “We are holding a meeting to discuss the party’s way forward in the changed context,” he said.

Dhakal added that Neupane’s views were his own.

The issue of filling party vacancies had also arisen earlier. However, citing the potential risk of factionalism while assigning responsibilities, the party leadership appeared to be in a mood to give continuity to its existing structure until the general convention.

But Neupane says the party should fill the vacancies as the general convention is all of ten months away. The party’s national conference held last year decided to hold the first general convention on May 8–10. But after Lamichhane’s arrest, it has been deferred till March next year.

Following the court’s Friday order, the RSP called an emergency meeting of the secretariat on Saturday.

The virtual meeting decided to accept the Supreme Court’s verdict as a ‘legal obligation’.

The RSP secretariat meeting, however, commented that the court’s ruling appeared to have been based on “baseless reasoning”, arbitrarily linking the cooperatives issue with a matter that should have been treated under the Companies Act.

“The RSP legally accepts the honourable Supreme Court’s order to uphold the decision of the Tulsipur High Court in the case concerning party president and former deputy prime minister and home minister Rabi Lamichhane,” the party statement read.

“However, we express concern over the strong possibility that a decision may have been made on the basis of unfounded and baseless arguments by wrongly associating the case—which should have come under the Companies Act—with cooperatives, while those actually involved in the misappropriation of billions of rupees from cooperatives… have not been held equally accountable,” reads the press release.