CPN-UML leader Jitendra Narayan Dev has quit the party. In the statement on Monday, Dev said the party failed to understand the September Gen Z protests and instead framed them as a ‘foreign conspiracy’.

“The Gen Z uprising was an outburst of public anger against long-standing misgovernance, corruption, plunder, unemployment and the large-scale migration of youths,” Dev said. “Rather than understanding this reality or trying to reform itself, the party chose to portray it as a foreign plot, promote personality cults and run the party in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. I therefore announce my resignation from the CPN-UML with effect from today.”

Dev had joined the UML on July 1, 2023, after leaving the Nepali Congress. He had earlier been associated with the then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum (Lokatantrik) led by Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, which later merged with the Congress.

A leftist by background, Dev began his political career with the UML in 1992. He later served as a National Assembly member from the Congress and is a former minister and Constituent Assembly member. Dev served as Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation in 2017.