Communist Party Prepares for Secretariat Meeting After Disappointing Election Results

The CPN (Communist Party of Nepal), which suffered a humiliating defeat in the recently concluded House of Representatives elections, is preparing to convene a secretariat meeting.

In the 2079 elections, the CPN (Maoist Centre), a major component of the current CPN, won 32 seats on its own. Despite alliances with various parties including CPN (Unified Socialist), the CPN finished in fourth place in the elections held on Falgun 21, securing only 17 seats.

The CPN contested the House of Representatives elections after uniting with 25 leftist factions, including the former CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist). However, following election results that were contrary to the party's expectations, the secretariat meeting held at the central office in Parisdanda on Falgun 28 conducted a preliminary review.

During the meeting, which included coordinators of the election mobilization committees from all seven provinces, coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' concluded that the party was set back due to the public wave seen towards the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). Nevertheless, leader Rajendra Shrestha stated that a serious review would be conducted in the next meeting regarding how their candidates were defeated even in seats where victory was certain.

Spokesperson Agni Prasad Sapkota informed that the secretariat meeting will convene in one or two days to review this matter. He told Ratopati, "A secretariat meeting is being called in one or two days for a serious review of the party's setback in the elections. In that meeting, there will be a ruthless review of why the party has been facing setbacks in every election, why we could not retain the previous mandate this time, and regarding party transformation, reorganization, and synthesis of ideology."

Sapkota further stated that a central committee meeting will be held to discuss preparations for the general convention to make the party active and strong. Discussions will also be held in the meeting about preparing for the general convention by Asar.

'We are preparing for the general convention to strengthen the party by reorganizing and transforming it with the synthesis of ideology. The secretariat meeting will prepare to call a central committee meeting, perhaps by Asar, to hold the general convention,' Sapkota said.

The CPN had claimed to win decisive seats in the first-past-the-post category, although proportional representation votes slightly declined compared to the previous election. The CPN, which also faced defeat in Maoist strongholds, secured 9 seats with 7 in first-past-the-post and 11,577 votes in proportional representation. In the previous election, the Maoists won 14 seats with 18 in first-past-the-post and around 1,175,000 votes in proportional representation.

The Maoist vote bank had been continuously declining, winning 220 seats in 2064 BS, 80 seats in 2070 BS, 53 seats in 2074 BS, and 32 seats in 2079 BS. The Maoists formed the CPN by uniting with various parties and contested the recent elections. However, this time, while the Rastriya Swatantra Party became the leading party by winning 182 seats in both first-past-the-post and proportional representation, the CPN suffered its biggest setback in history.