Paraswar Kandel, a 75-year-old delegate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, travelled from Baglung to help choose the party’s new leadership. Instead, he spent five hours in Chitwan’s sweltering 36-degree Celsius heat on Monday waiting for the closed session to begin.

Like many others, Kandel hoped for a cooling shower similar to Sunday’s rain while anxiously awaiting the start of the voting process. Heavy rain eventually arrived at around 5pm, bringing some relief from the heat, but the closed session remained stalled.

“I came here thinking this was an opportunity to select the right teammates for Rabi Lamichhane and Balendra Shah,” Kandel said. “I came to vote for a new leadership, but after waiting all day, I didn’t even get the chance.”

Kandel was not alone. Hundreds of convention delegates who converged on Bharatpur from across the country spent the entire day waiting as proceedings were repeatedly postponed. Speaking to Kantipur, eight other delegates blamed poor management and factional politics for leaving them stranded under the scorching sun.

“There wasn’t even a functional secretariat desk to provide updates. Nobody gave us any answers,” said a delegate from Kavre. “This is nothing but harassment.”

According to party insiders, the closed session, scheduled to begin on Monday morning, could not convene due to a growing dispute over the selection of convention delegates. The row was not merely procedural. The deadlock deepened after a proposal was submitted to party chairman Lamichhane to add more than 800 delegates to accommodate various groups that recently merged into the RSP, including those led by senior leader Shah, the Bibeksheel Sajha Party faction, and the Tharuhat/Tharuwan movement faction.

As tensions escalated on Monday afternoon, chairman Lamichhane and senior leader Shah, who is also the prime minister, held a private meeting at the Latauli Sanctuary Resort in Shaktikhor to resolve the differences, according to an RSP leader.

An RSP lawmaker from Koshi province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticised the party’s logistical shortcomings.

“These issues should have been sorted out well in advance,” the lawmaker said. “Because it was left to the last minute, everyone had to suffer in this extreme heat.”

By 3:30pm, with the closed session originally scheduled for 8:30am yet to begin, exhausted delegates had started sleeping inside the nomination hall. While strict security prevented entry into the main closed-session venue, the adjacent nomination hall effectively became a makeshift dormitory.

“We came here to vote, and we will stay until we do,” said delegate Ramesh Adhikari. “But waiting in this heat has been incredibly draining.”

The Madhesh flashpoint

The party’s central election committee formally announced the postponement of the day’s proceedings at 5:45pm. Ram Gurung, deputy chief of the election commission, said the problems began after the preliminary delegate list was published on Sunday evening, triggering a flood of claims and objections.

“The national convention was called immediately after the provincial conventions, and some names were left out due to technical glitches,” Gurung told Kantipur. “Statutory rules require us to provide a 24-hour window for challenges once the preliminary list is published, followed by verification. That process simply took longer than expected.”

RSP central committee member Rajan Gautam said the main controversy centred on Madhesh province. Party leaders said the largest number of disputes involved the list of 592 delegates from the province.

“Names of several elected delegates were missing, replaced by unfamiliar faces,” Gautam said. “Verifying these records took time.”

Party insiders also said that some individuals facing disciplinary action had managed to have their names included on the delegate list.

Despite securing 57.33 percent of proportional representation votes in Madhesh in the last election, internal divisions meant the RSP failed to hold district conventions anywhere in the province except Parsa, where the convention itself was marred by scuffles and heightened tensions. As district-level leadership could not be elected, convention delegates were selected through ad hoc committees.

Ranjit Ram, an RSP leader from Madhesh, confirmed that delegates arrived in Chitwan based on selections made by those ad hoc bodies and municipal conventions.

“The district and provincial committees selected delegates based on the old setups,” Ram said. “With a few additional nominees, a total of 592 delegates have arrived from Madhesh.”

Party insiders attribute the absence of conventions in Madhesh to internal feuds and tensions between founding members and newer entrants. The disputes have previously led to physical altercations among party cadres in several districts.

In Madhesh, all eight incumbent district chairs sought to retain their positions. In Parsa, the only district to hold a convention, incumbent chair Hari Panta secured another term despite clashes during the process. District chairs from the province had earlier lodged complaints with the central committee, accusing Madhesh Province chief Tapeshwar Yadav of nepotism and favouring a particular ethnic group.

Chairman Lamichhane had attempted to settle the disputes during a meeting with Madhesh leaders ahead of the convention, but the grievances spilled over into the national gathering.

RSP spokesperson Manish Jha recalled that the party secured only 72,000 votes in Madhesh during the 2022 elections. He attributed the current tensions to a rapid post-election rise in popularity that outpaced organisational development.

Jha maintained that the friction was part of the party’s institutional evolution and would be resolved soon.

Rameshwar Yadav, a delegate from Siraha, said it would have been preferable for delegates to arrive through regular conventions, but they had participated after the central leadership intervened.

“The centre issued a circular to ensure inclusivity so that no one was left out,” he said. “We are here as delegates for the time being, and we hope proper district conventions will take place soon.”

Campaigning and leadership forecasts

Gautam said the disputes in Madhesh soon prompted similar complaints from other provinces.

“Once the Madhesh issue blew up, we started hearing about similar problems elsewhere,” he said. “We had to double-check membership numbers and meeting minutes, which dragged out the timeline.”

Although the official delegate list was delayed, aspirants for central committee positions quickly began canvassing for support around the venue. Candidates including Birendra Shrestha, Gyanu Poudyal, Bharat Prasad Paneru, Hemraj Thapa, Ramesh Prasad Ojha, Krishna Bahadur Batala, Amrita BK, Janika Joshi, Gunananda Mahato and Tanka Bahadur Dhami distributed campaign materials despite an explicit ban imposed by the election committee.

Spokesperson Manish Jha has already declared his candidacy for the post of general secretary. Education Minister Sasmit Khanal, Agriculture Minister Gita Choudhary, lawmaker Prakash Chandra Pariyar, KP Khanal, Jwala Sangroula, Yagyamani Neupane, Nisha Dangi and Tashi Lhazom have also announced bids for central committee positions.

However, RSP joint general secretary Bipin Acharya said party rules prohibit campaigning before the final delegate list is published.

“The election commission is likely monitoring the distribution of campaign cards and will take necessary steps,” Acharya said.

Acharya added that the pending delegate identity cards would be printed overnight and distributed from 7am on Tuesday, with the closed session set to begin immediately afterwards.

According to party insiders, chairman Lamichhane and senior leader Shah are expected to be elected unopposed, while fierce contests are likely for the remaining office-bearer posts and the 99-member central committee. Both Lamichhane and Shah advocated healthy competition during their speeches at the opening ceremony.

Under the party’s revised statute, the RSP will have three vice-chair positions: one open, one reserved for women and one nominated. Dr Swarnim Wagle is considered the frontrunner for the open vice-chair position and currently faces no challenger.

As a result, voting is expected for the posts of women’s vice-chair, general secretary and joint general secretary, despite ongoing efforts to reach a consensus.

If consensus proves elusive for the women’s vice-chair position, Law Minister Sobita Gautam, Treasurer Lima Adhikari and General Administration Minister Pratibha Rawal are expected to compete. Dr Toshima Karki is also being considered for either the vice-chair or general secretary position. Meanwhile, Sunil Lamsal, the Minister for Physical Infrastructure who joined the RSP alongside Shah, is tipped for the nominated vice-chair post.

For the open general secretary position, a failure to reach consensus could set up a contest among former general secretary Kabindra Burlakoti, Bipin Acharya, Shishir Khanal, Manish Jha, Ganesh Parajuli and Yagyamani Neupane. Bhoop Dev Shah is widely expected to take the nominated general secretary position.

For the open joint general secretary posts, Hari Dhakal and Prakash Chandra Pariyar are among the leading contenders, alongside Asim Shah, a former lawmaker and political adviser to Prime Minister Shah. Nisha Dangi is considered a likely candidate for the women’s joint general secretary position.

The party recently amended its statute to expand the number of office-bearers from 12 to 19. The new structure comprises one chairman, one senior leader, three vice-chairs (including one woman and one nominated), two general secretaries (one nominated), five joint general secretaries (one woman and two nominated), one spokesperson, three joint spokespersons (one woman), one treasurer and two joint treasurers (one woman).

By late Monday evening, Bhuwan KC, chief of the RSP central election commission, said the delegate list had finally been cleared.

“It doesn’t take long to finalise the lawmakers’ list, so we prioritised regional and district delegates first,” KC told Kantipur. “Some lawmakers complained that their names were initially missing, but that was an easy fix, which we handled later.”

KC added that distribution of identity cards had already begun.

“The distribution should wrap up by 11am on Tuesday, after which the closed session will begin,” he said. “Nomination filings and the rest of the electoral process will kick off tomorrow.”