Is Khanal prevailing over Nepal in Unified Socialist?

May 31, 2024 11:21 am

By Purushottam Poudel

Kathmandu: Separate meetings of two top leaders of the CPN (Unified Socialist) with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba have sparked a debate again whether the new party was divided along factional lines under Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal.

Former prime minister Khanal met Dahal on Thursday while the party chair, Madhav Nepal, attended a meeting of opposition parties on Wednesday convened by the main opposition leader Deuba. The meeting held at Deuba’s residence in Budhanilkantha was aimed at realigning the coalition for the Madhesh provincial government.

The Madhesh government, led by Upendra Yadav’s Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, has been reduced to a minority after the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) withdrew their support to the provincial government.

Senior leader Khanal is believed to have played a role in keeping the party within the present coalition, despite efforts from the party chair Nepal and other leaders to change the coalition.

During their 45-minute meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister Dahal and Khanal discussed ongoing political developments, including strategies to give continuity to the leftist alliance in the federal and provincial governments, states a press note released by Khanal’s secretariat.

Following the meeting between Prime Minister Dahal and Unified Socialist leader Khanal, the prime minister also spoke to Unified Socialist chair Nepal. “I talked to Madhav Nepal this morning. He won’t join any other alliance and he is not out of this coalition,” Prime Minister Dahal said while talking to media persons at the Biratnagar airport. Dahal added that he believed the Unified Socialist won’t change the ruling coalition at the federal as well as provincial levels.

“Our party backs the present coalition, and we are not likely to change the coalition anytime soon,” said Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Bhanu Bhakta Joshi of the Unified Socialist.

“From the centre to the provincial level, our party has not considered changing the coalition,” Joshi told the Post.

On Wednesday, Congress chief Deuba invited Janata Samajbadi Nepal chair Yadav, who recently left the Dahal government, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party chair Mahantha Thakur and Unified Socialist chair Nepal to his residence to discuss the politics of Madhesh.

Saroj Kumar Yadav of the JSP Nepal is the incumbent chief minister of Madhesh. However, he lost the majority in the assembly after the UML and the Maoist Centre withdrew their support to the Yadav government on May 12. After the Janata Samajbadi Nepal pulled the plug on the Dahal government in Kathmandu, the major ruling partners also withdrew their support to the Madhesh provincial government.

As per Article 168 (4) of the constitution, the chief minister must prove his majority in the Provincial Assembly within 30 days after a coalition partner withdraws support. Yadav constitutionally has to go for the floor test by June 12 but he is set to do that on June 5.

“The Congress and the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal sought the support of our party in Madhesh Province at the Wednesday meeting,” Rajendra Pandey, vice-chair of the Unified Socialist, told the Post. “Our party has not decided on the matter, as the day for the floor test is yet to come.”

The opposition parties can secure a majority in Madhesh Province if the Unified Socialist gives the trust vote to Yadav, the chief minister.

Meanwhile, a meeting of UML, Maoist Centre and Janamat Party leaders in Janakpur on Thursday reached an agreement to form the provincial government led by a Janamat member.

According to the agreement, the Unified Socialist and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party have also agreed to join the coalition in the province. Saroj Kumar Yadav of the UML, Bharat Prasad Sah of the Maoist Centre and Mahesh Prasad Yadav of Janamat Party have signed the agreement but no leaders from the Unified Socialist and Loktantrik Samajbadi have put their signatures on it.

The UML is the largest party in the province with 24 seats (excluding the Speaker), the Congress has 22, JSP-Nepal 19, Janamat Party 13, Loktantrik Samajbadi 9, Maoist Centre 9, Unified Socialist 7, Sanghiya Samajbadi 1, Nagarik Unmukti 1, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party 1.

In the 107-seat assembly, the UML, the Maoist Centre and the CK Raut-led Janamat alone can’t secure a majority.

Notably, the Upendra Yadav-led JSP-Nepal is the only party that has got an opportunity to lead a provincial government continuously after the 2017 elections that first formed the provincial legislature. Lalbabu Raut of Yadav’s party remained the chief minister of Madhesh for the full five-year term in the earlier tenure.

After the meeting on Wednesday, Unified Socialist Chief Whip in federal parliament Metmani Chaudhary told the Post that his party would support the Madhesh government to foil the attempts of the ruling parties to change the political equation in Janakpur.

“We agreed to foil attempts by the ruling parties [in Kathmandu] to oust the present government in Madhesh,” said Chaudhary. “We will extend our support to the Yadav-led government.”

But the party changed its position within hours after senior leader Khanal met Prime Minister Dahal. Though Nepal is the party chair, Khanal often prevails in the party’s decisions, if the recent decisions are anything to go by.

Earlier, too, when Unified Socialist chair Nepal decided to join the opposition camp led by the Congress to constitute the government in Sudurpaschim, Khanal had reached out to Prime Minister Dahal which ultimately foiled the plan to side with the Congress-led alliance there.

However, Pandey, the party vice-chair, claimed that Nepal, as the party chief, has the authority to make decisions. Pandey also claims that such a decision comes after a discussion in the party.

“Sometimes Khanal, the senior leader, might feel that he is the one who takes party decisions, this is just his illusion,” Pandey told the Post.

Pandey termed Khanal’s meeting with the prime minister and pressurising the party to change its decision as unacceptable.

Is a senior leader of the party prevailing over the party chair?

Replying to the question raised by the Post, Khanal said, “If someone takes the unfolding of the events in that way, I have nothing much to say, but I believe our party should continue the present ruling coalition without if and buts.”

Khanal also said that, as a communist leader who fought to advance the communist movement in Nepal, he will do everything to make the communist party strong.

The Unified Socialist is holding its general convention from June 30 to July 4. Nepal and Khanal are likely to face each other for the party’s top post at the convention.

After the UML and the Maoist Centre, the major ruling partners, decided to support the Nagarik Unmukti Party in Sudurpaschim, the Unified Socialist decided to change the camp. A meeting between Prime Minister Dahal and Khanal also led to the appointment of Dirgharaj Sodari as the chief minister. Assembly party leader of the Unified Socialist, Sodari was appointed to the post on April 18 despite serious reservations from the UML.

Sodari won the confidence motion in the provincial assembly on May 15 but the UML and the Maoist Centre have yet to join the Cabinet. A month after its formation, the Sodari Cabinet has yet to get full shape.

Federal Minister for Industry Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari on Thursday criticised the party for its unstable policy. Bhandari, a minister from the UML, accused Unified Socialist chair Nepal, saying, “Due to the dubious role played by the Unified Socialist leadership, the Sudurpaschim government is unable to take full shape.”

A group of UML leaders formed the Unified Socialist, led by Madhav Nepal, in 2021. But the party performed poorly in the elections held the following year at all levels. It failed to secure even the status of a national political party in the 2022 general elections.

The party, which has 10 seats in the House of Representatives, has been in government for most of the 18 months since.