Nepali Congress Reviews Shock Defeat in Gandaki Province, Citing Internal Lapses and Strategic Errors

Pokhara. The Nepali Congress, which won 10 seats in the previous election, was reduced to just 2 seats in the recently concluded House of Representatives election. Congress candidates were victorious only in Manang and Mustang, districts beyond the Himalayas. As the Congress lost the remaining 16 seats in Gandaki, which has 18 constituencies, other older parties were swept away.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party won 15 seats and an independent candidate was elected in one seat. Having faced an unexpected defeat in the election, the Congress is now engaged in internal review. Participants in the review meeting held by the Congress Gandaki Province Committee on Wednesday concluded that internal issues were the main cause of the defeat.

Madhav Prasad Bastola (Madhu), the candidate from Kaski-2, argued that Congress was defeated due to psychological uncertainty. ‘While the Election Commission was collecting voter lists, we were under the illusion that the election would not happen at all. Because of this, we paid no attention to the 7-8 lakh new voters who were added,’ he said. ‘Remaining in the mindset that the election might be postponed even until before the start of the silence period was our biggest strategic blunder.’ Bastola argued that Congress suffered defeat due to the lack of schooling for new voters.

Congress did not lose the election for this reason alone. Jita Prakash Ale, Tanahun President and former minister of Gandaki, considers feudalism within the party as a major reason for the loss.

‘The practice where central leaders become General Convention members directly even if they lose the election, while grassroots workers always remain at risk, has turned the party not into a vote-producing entity, but merely a leader-producing factory,’ he said. ‘You cannot win just by focusing on the election.’

Ale complained that the damage occurred because the booth committee structure, mentioned even in the 2015 statute, is currently being ignored. ‘A ward has 4-5 booths, but there is no clear framework for who looks after which one,’ he said.

There are other reasons for Congress's defeat this time as well. Foreign employment is also considered a factor in the erosion of the party's traditional base. ‘Children working abroad influenced their parents at home to vote for the bell (Rastriya Swatantra Party),’ said the defeated candidate and provincial spokesperson Bastola. ‘The fact that the children of our senior leaders, who walk around draped in the four-star flag, chose the bell is the result of the gap between our ideology and the generations.’

Provincial committee member Ashik Gurung argued that the party's organization has reached a very weak state. ‘Our head (leadership) has been given Botox and makeup, but the body (organization) has rotted,’ he said. ‘Now, we must improve it from the roots, not just with makeup.’

He stated that votes did not go in favor of Congress because RSwapa set a new standard of inclusivity by incorporating youth from all sectors. Some suggestions were also given to improve the condition of Congress. Provincial Vice-President Kalpana Tiwari suggested that the party's organizational structure is cumbersome and inactive, so it should move forward by forming lean committees.

She concluded that forming ward committees with 45 to 50 members leads to problems where quorum is not met in meetings and no one takes responsibility, paralyzing the organization. The special General Convention held just before the election was also cited as a factor in the defeat.

Yam Bahadur Malla of Parbat considers internal strife and sabotage as the main cause of the loss. ‘A party without morality and discipline cannot survive,’ he said. ‘Congress fighting against Congress forced voters to seek alternatives.’

Many leaders analyze that errors in ticket distribution, by blocking potentially winning candidates in several areas, led to the reduction from a potential 18 seats to just 2.

Provincial committee member Ajit Chhetri considered the long-standing ad-hocism in the sister organizations as the main reason for the defeat. ‘The long-running ad-hocism in Congress's sister organizations is causing the party to become sterile,’ he said. ‘The reason for losing the election now is not just immediate; there are many problems accumulated over a long time.’

He argued that the failure to properly utilize technology and the lack of necessary preparation based on accurate analysis of the situation were the main reasons for the electoral defeat.

The province will send a report concluding that Congress cannot survive by merely capitalizing on its history, and will start preparing for the local level elections scheduled in 14 months from now. Provincial General Secretary Bishnu Prasad Lamichhane stated that all received suggestions would be compiled and sent to the center.

‘A practice should be developed where all leaders, from Sher Bahadur Deuba to Gagan Thapa, win elections from their respective booths,’ most participants said in the review meeting. ‘One must pass the test at the lower level to reach leadership.’

Suggestions were made to reduce the provincial committee of 80 to 90 members to a lean team of 21 members and to revive the booth committees.