KATHMANDU: Former Nepali Congress (NC) Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka, a key figure in the party’s dissident faction led by former president Sher Bahadur Deuba, appears to be distancing himself from the faction’s parallel activities.
Although Khadka participated in the National Gathering of the dissident faction in Kathmandu on August 14–16 and even criticized the party leadership, he was not seen at the event’s closing ceremony and has remained largely inactive ever since. Khadka also skipped the faction’s meeting on Wednesday when a separate general convention schedule was presented.
Leaders of the faction say Khadka, who is considered a close confidant of Deuba, is now pivoting toward party President Gagan Kumar Thapa. They claim that the two are in regular discussions of late.
Dissident leaders also claim that Khadka plans to remain with Thapa’s establishment faction, participate in the upcoming general convention, and potentially challenge Thapa for the presidency—or seek the senior leader role if he loses.
“Khadka has been inactive since the national gathering,” a Deuba faction leader told Himal Press on Thursday. “He told us that he would not form a new party and backed away from parallel activities. There appears to be an issue with his leadership capacity.”
Sources say Khadka started distancing from the faction activities after the national gathering formed a general convention preparation committee under the leadership of Shashank Koirala. Khadka had appeared unhappy with the decision. Many say Khadka became disappointed after Shashank was picked for the role.
“We had no choice,” the Deuba-aligned leader explained. “After Khadka said he would stay neutral, we assigned the responsibility to Shashank based on Shekhar Koirala’s advice.”
Khadka had been emboldened after the Supreme Court decided to review its earlier verdict, which upheld the Election Commission’s decision to recognize the new party leadership elected through the Special General Convention held in January. Encouraged by the court’s decision to rehear the case, Khadka spoke aggressively against the party leadership at the gathering. However, he hesitated to move ahead by splitting the party if needed.
“He lacked the confidence to form a new party during tough times,” the leader added, comparing Khadka’s retreat to Ram Chandra Paudel’s 2002 decision to abandon Deuba’s breakaway effort and return to Girija Prasad Koirala’s camp. “He advised supporters against updating their active membership records but quietly started preparations to update his own.”
Many have accused Khadka, who handed acting party president duties by Deuba following last September’s Gen Z protests, of betraying the faction.
“When we questioned him about his contradictory statements, he said he would neither form another party nor run for president himself. He promised instead to back whoever challenges Gagan,” the leader said.
Meen Bishwakarma, coordinator of the Deuba faction’s publicity committee, acknowledges that Khadka has not been active in the faction’s activities lately. “Since he is involved in a court case against the incumbent leadership, he should have been more active in parallel activities,” Bishwakarma said. “Instead, he stopped participating after the general convention preparation committee was formed.”
NC leaders say the party is heading toward a split after the Deuba faction prepared its own general convention schedule after the Supreme Court declined to issue an interim order to put all the activities related to the general convention in a status quo. They say the party is not far from a split now that separate convention programs have been announced amid ongoing parallel activities.
Bishwakarma said they prepared the general convention schedule after the Supreme Court refused to issue an interim order to put all activities related to the general convention on hold. He said whether the party will split depends on the Supreme Court’s verdict.
“After the court’s verdict, whoever wins must try to reconcile the party. If there is no effort to reconcile, the party will naturally split into two,” he said. “If the division is limited to the Central Working Committee now, it will eventually extend to the provincial, district and local level committees as well.”
