CPN (Maoist Centre) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the party will organise street protests purportedly to strengthen the achievements gained as a result of the decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Dahal stressed that political parties and communities must unite to protect the achievements he attributed to the people’s movement. The 2006 popular revolt overthrew the centuries-old institution of monarchy and established Nepal as a secular republic in 2006.

Addressing an event organised on Saturday by the Nepal Dalit Liberation Front on the theme “The status of Dalit rights in Nepal, policy development, and implementation challenges,” the Maoist chief underscored the need for cooperation and coordination among the Dalit community to safeguard their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

He also urged other political parties to join hands to defend the achievements secured through the people’s struggle for change.

Prakash Jwala, head of the publicity department of the CPN (Unified Socialist), said his party is running a campaign with the slogan ‘Good governance and employment: Preparing for socialism’.

“Our party can consider cooperating with the Maoist Centre in the protests to safeguard the achievements gained through recent political movements,” Jwala said.

Also the Socialist Front, which includes both the Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialist, along with some fringe parties, has already decided to launch street protests and it will be announced soon, Jwala said.

At the interaction among Dalits, Dahal emphasised that, while protecting the Dalit community’s rights enshrined in the Constitution’s Preamble and Articles 24 and 40, the community must exert pressure through various fronts—the streets, Parliament, and committees of political parties—for effective implementation of the constitutional provisions.

Dahal spoke for the proportional representation of the Dalit community in all state organs and bodies based on their population.

“Our party has a clear and consistent policy that the Dalit community must be given special representation in all state organs, bodies, and social spheres,” Dahal said, calling for a constitutional amendment to guarantee such special rights with reparation for the discrimination they have faced over the centuries.

Dahal’s pledge to lobby for more rights for the Dalits, who have been historically discriminated against, and his protests announcement is seen as an attempt to placate various communities that have alienated from the Maoist party.

However, his announcement comes at a time when he has failed to keep his party united.

Dahal has recently been challenged by Janardan Sharma, a deputy general secretary of the Maoist Centre. Sharma has publicly criticised Dahal for not relinquishing power but further tightening his grip on the party’s activities.

In response, Dahal recently said that the party’s movement will not halt simply because Sharma does not support it.

Speaking to journalists at Biratnagar Airport a few days ago, Dahal said the party’s movement would not stop just because one leader criticises it.

So, when the party leadership is challenged within the organisation, will such a protest attract people’s participation?

Ram Karki, a secretary of the Maoist Centre, said that the party chair revealed the protest plan without consulting party committees. Karki believed it might be discussed in the upcoming meetings.

“I am aware that the party chair, at the event of Dalits, spoke about the protest,” Karki said. “He might have said so considering that our party indeed got weakened after it started disregarding the Dalits.”

Maoists believe that the country ushered in the republican system due to the 10-year insurgency that their party waged. “However, the system could not eliminate the caste system,” Karki said. “So if we can harmonise the relation with the Dalit community, there still is scope for a large-scale protest.”

In his third stint as prime minister, Dahal’s Cabinet saw no representation of Dalit communities. His earlier tenures also saw dismal representation of the Dalit community, observers say.

The Maoist Centre has seen its support dwindle sharply over the years. The party, which got 29.28 percent of votes in the first Constituent Assembly election in 2008, garnered only 15.21 percent in the second Constituent Assembly election in 2013.

In the 2017 general elections, the first after the country adopted the federal structure, the party’s popularity dipped to 13.66 percent. Even then, the party’s downward journey did not stop. After the November 2022 elections, it hit a low of 11.13 percent.

Dahal often warns of street protests whenever he has grudges with leaders from the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML—the two largest parties and coalition partners.

Political analysts take with ease the Maoist Centre and other parties’ warnings of street protests as they employ all tactics to establish the party’s lost connection with the people.

“At present, no political party has any moral ground to bring the common people to the streets—maybe a few of their cadres might gather,” Associate Professor Uddhab Pyakurel said. “When it comes to the Maoist Centre, after being unseated from the government last year, the party might be trying to motivate its members in the name of street agitation.”

Pyakurel, who specialises in political sociology, also said that the Maoist Centre has no moral authority to lead a major protest. Pyakurel reasons that the Maoist Centre does not have enough public support to wage a large-scale protest.

“The Maoist Centre has been discredited for what its leaders did or didn’t do while in power. I see no chance of them holding any large-scale political protest,” Pyakurel added.

Having had to quit government over a year ago, the Maoist Centre, the third largest party in Parliament, and the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the fourth largest, are trying to collaborate on a few issues.

Recently, Maoist Centre chair Dahal visited Nakkhu prison, where RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane has been kept for judicial custody in connection with a cooperative fraud scam.

However, party leaders see little prospect of the two parties coming together for a street protest given their differences on ideological issues.