by Tika R Pradhan in Kathmandu Post, April 3, 2023
The CPN (Unified Socialist), which was formed less than two years ago by splitting the CPN-UML, the country’s largest communist party, is gradually weakening as its leaders and cadres are ditching it and drifting back to the mothership.
The party has been further weakened with several senior leaders quitting it after the recent presidential elections. The resignations came after party chair Madhav Nepal declined the CPN-UML’s offer to become the country’s President.
The Unified Socialist is a member of the current 10-party coalition.
The ‘two-line struggle’ (difference of opinion regarding a party’s official line in the top leadership) in the Unified Socialist has been viewed as meaningful at a time when the UML is trying to become the largest party in the House of Representatives by merging the splinter party into it. The UML leaders claim that once they merge the Unified Socialist and the election results of the April 23 bypolls are out, their party will emerge as the largest in the lower House. And, that could bring about drastic changes in national politics.
Those leaving the party to join the mother party say the Unified Socialist would reach nowhere by joining hands with the Nepali Congress, which espouses a completely opposite ideology.
Leaders unhappy with the goings on in the party have been urging the Unified Socialist leadership to expedite talks with other communist parties including the UML for a merger.
UML Deputy General Secretary Prithvi Subba Gurung, who was one of the key architects of the UML-Maoist alliance formed after last November’s elections, recently told the Post that Madhav Nepal did not even discuss Oli’s proposal on presidency with Unified Socialist leaders.
“I don’t know what stopped Nepal from presenting the UML proposal at his party’s meetings for endorsement,” Gurung said.
Gurung hinted that many Unified Socialist leaders wanted to see Nepal as President and that would have allowed a new leadership to emerge in the party on the one hand, and on the other, helped unite fragmented communist parties.
Gurung also said that it wouldn’t be a surprise if Nepal becomes a new prime minister from the UML after a merger of the two parties, as, according to him, ‘cordial discussions’ have started between the two parties.
However, UML insiders say Oli’s new strategy is to bring back all major leaders and cadres of communist parties including the Unified Socialist and the CPN (Maoist Centre) ‘by hook or by crook’ while leaving behind their top leaders.
Given his growing hostility towards Madhav Nepal and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the UML chair is not ready to wholeheartedly welcome them in the party, the UML insiders said.
Some Unified Socialist leaders suggest that Oli’s offer to Nepal to become President was not serious to begin with.
“Since Oli didn’t respond to Nepal’s earlier proposal to revive the Nepal Communist Party, it is clear that the former’s offer to the latter to become President was not genuine,” a Unified Socialist leader said.
As soon as Madhav Nepal proposed Nepali Congress senior leader Ramchandra Paudel as the candidate for the President, two Unified Socialist leaders—Vice-chair and Bagmati provincial in-charge of the party Kedar Neupane and Standing Committee member Chudamani Jangali—tendered their resignations to the party chair. The resignations were approved by the party’s 55th Central Secretariat meeting held on March 28.
Also, there is deep dissatisfaction in the Unified Socialist with the party’s performance in last November’s elections—it could not even become a national party. Besides, party rank and file have also raised concerns over the working approach of their top leaders.
“As requested by us, the UML chair offered Nepal to become President as that would have created an environment of trust and helped unite our parties,” Jangali told the Post, adding, “But Nepal declined Oli’s proposal and we don’t know why.”
Soon after Nepal decided to back Congress’ candidate for President, we put in our papers, he said.
“We realised we don’t have a future in the Unified Socialist as it lacks coherence as a party and most leaders are dissatisfied,” Jangali told the Post. “I don’t think this party will remain intact for long.”
Besides Jangali and Neupane who are no longer with the party, another leader Mukunda Neupane, who comes third in the party hierarchy after Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, is also not happy with the party’s decision to partner with the Congress.
Earlier, Neupane had presented a 33-point dissent at the party’s central committee meeting urging the party to pursue a broader left unity including the UML and warned that failure to do so could result in the party’s collapse. But the Unified Socialist leadership dismissed the idea.
After the party’s poor show in the polls despite forging an electoral alliance with the Congress and the Maoist Centre, Neupane started saying that Unified Socialist would implode if it continued to remain in the Congress-led coalition.
“I don’t think the party can compete against biggies like the Congress and the UML in the next elections,” he said.
Neupane was criticised by Unified Socialist top leaders after he began publicly criticising the party’s decisions.
Unified Socialist leaders have reportedly sought a clarification from Neupane, for speaking up in defiance of party discipline, to which Neupane reacted: “That is nothing but a ploy to put off other leaders from speaking up.”
“Now, it’s time for me to seek clarification from the party chair for making false statements,” Neupane told the Post. “Party chair Nepal had told me that my public statements could embolden other leaders but I said I won’t stop speaking.”
UML leaders, meanwhile, claimed that they are in regular talks with dissidents in the Unified Socialist.
“Yes, we are in touch,” said Thakur Gaire, a UML lawmaker, who was close to Madhav Nepal before he split the party.
Dissident leaders said the two top leaders—Nepal and Khanal—have no political vision beyond appointing their trusted aides to ministerial positions on the quota set aside by the Congress.
Unified Socialist ministers Beduram Bhusal and Prakash Jwala are the picks of party chair Nepal and senior leader Jhalanath Khanal, respectively.
Meanwhile, UML central committee member Bishnu Rijal said discussions with several Unified Socialist are going on an individual basis as “the party’s leadership has been deceived” by the promises of the Congress and the Maoist Centre.
“It seems that the Unified Socialist top leaders are happy to have two ministers instead of President,” said Rijal, a long time confidant of Nepal until the party’s split.
Rijal even argued that the UML’s offer of national presidency to a small party with just 10 seats was ‘generous.’
Although Unified Socialist Secretary Ram Kumari Jhakri refused to talk to the Post about her dissatisfaction and her discussions with UML leaders including party chair Oli, UML leaders said she is among the leaders who have been in constant touch, seeking unity between the two parties.
Jhakri’s image of holding Madhav Nepal’s hand and leading him to the Election Commission to register a new party had become viral in the media two years ago. But now Jhakri is among those most dissatisfied with the split.
“I think only those who have landed state positions of benefit including ministership are happy now,” said an office bearer of the Unified Socialist. “Our party will cease to exist wherever we go, be it with the Maoist Centre or the UML.”
Amid growing dissatisfaction in the Unified Socialist brass, the UML has launched the “mission grassroots campaign” to lure back the Unified Socialist cadres all across the country.
https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2023/04/03/unified-socialist-can-t-keep-key-leaders-after-poll-debacle
