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KATHMANDU: CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairperson Madhav Kumar Nepal is often recognized as a leader who speaks about morality and principles. He frequently claims to be ethical and cultured.
Not just Nepal, but another Unified Socialist leader, Jhala Nath Khanal, also claims to be an exponent of ‘leftism’ and ‘socialism’ and often terms himself more ‘democratic’ than the Nepali Congress.
Listening to these experienced Nepali political leaders, one might think they are all democratic. However, the recent general convention of the Unified Socialist clearly showed how ‘illiberal’ they are in practice.
The party had elected over 1,800 representatives from different parts of the country to elect leaders to key positions. However, they couldn’t cast their votes. Except for the party chairperson, senior leader, and general secretary, who all were declared elected unopposed, no one else was elected. Nepal, who has been elected chairperson, nominated office-bearers of the previous committee as central committee members.
“Except for the positions of chairperson and general secretary, they should have allowed voting for other positions,” a general convention representative said. “UML allowed voting for different positions, but our leaders didn’t allow it.”
Chairperson Nepal and general secretary Ghanashyam Bhusal had expressed intent to contest the election for the position of chairperson. Khanal, who had secured the position of ‘senior leader’ for himself before the convention, didn’t take the side of any aspirant. On the concluding day, he announced the election of Nepal as the chairperson, himself as senior leader, and Bhusal as general secretary, and that all the representatives could now return home.
As per the party statute, Unified Socialist has a 299-member central committee including 23 office-bearers. According to leaders, there were too many aspirants for the 23 positions.
“Competition wouldn’t have disseminated a positive message. Since leaders agreed to select the chairperson unopposed, it should be the same for other positions,” Unified Socialist Spokesperson Jaganath Khatiwada said.
After Bhusal withdrew his stake for the position of chairperson and accepted the second-highest rank in the party with executive powers, i.e., general secretary, leaders announced that the general convention had concluded.
Why were leaders deprived of the right to contest?
Representatives say that elections could not be held after top leaders stated that ‘there should be no competition for the justification of rebellion.’ Some Unified Socialist leaders say the party leadership opposed voting because they wanted to discourage factionalism in the party.
There was fear of factional competition in the party. Two factions – one led by Chairperson Nepal and the other led by Khanal and Bhusal – were clearly seen during the general convention. “If elections were held, even ‘unexpected individuals’ could have come to office-bearer positions. People contrary to our core team’s understanding could have come to higher positions. That’s why we stopped the election,” a Unified Socialist leader said.
Another reason is the failure of Chairperson Nepal to manage his own faction. Both Rajendra Pandey and Dr. Beduram Bhusal from his faction were eyeing the position of senior vice-chairperson. Nepal was in favor of Pandey, but Dr. Bhusal wasn’t willing to withdraw.
According to Unified Socialist leaders, General Secretary Bhusal did not get the expected support from Khanal. Khanal had initially agreed to support Bhusal to become party chairperson. However, after the general convention began, Khanal remained neutral. Because of this, Bhusal felt his position had become weak.
“He (Bhusal) withdrew all of a sudden. We don’t know the reason,” Khatiwada said. “This made the election to key positions unanimous.”
