Internal Tensions Escalate Within CPN-UML Over Controversial Remarks

Kathmandu. Internal friction within the CPN-UML appears to be intensifying. Amidst the fallout from the poor election results on Falgun 21 and growing calls for party reorganization, top leaders have begun engaging in a series of mutual accusations.

The issue resurfaced after CPN-UML Acting Chairman and Parliamentary Party leader Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal' reiterated his controversial remarks made during the first meeting of the House of Representatives, despite a previous emergency secretariat meeting held to clarify his stance.

On Wednesday, Acting Chairman Thapa insisted in Pokhara that his parliamentary statement—which claimed the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) secured a near two-thirds majority with the support of the army, foreign powers, and the bureaucracy—was in line with party policy and decisions.

His remarks had previously drawn objections from Vice-Chairman Bishnu Paudel, Deputy General Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai, and leader Surendra Pandey. Following this, a secretariat meeting on Friday, Chaitra 20, clarified that the party accepts the election results and maintains its stance regarding the Nepal Army and the bureaucracy.

'The meeting clarified that our party's relationship with all state security agencies, including the Nepal Army, civil administration, bureaucracy, and the international community, remains friendly and as it was, and this relationship will be further strengthened in the future,' General Secretary Shankar Pokharel stated in a press release following the meeting.

Despite efforts to resolve the dispute, leader Thapa claimed on Wednesday that his remarks were correct and labeled those unsettled by them as 'right-wingers' within the party.

Thapa asserted that his statement exposed the 'right-wing tendencies' and 'enemies' hidden within the party, maintaining that his views expressed in Parliament were consistent with established party policies.

'The situation of internal struggle is such that people were agitated by that statement,' Badal said in Pokhara. 'Those who were agitated by that statement, those hidden people who were revealed—that statement only exposed the right-wing tendency within the party.' Thapa further claimed his remarks were a major strike against the enemies of the country and the people, as well as a blow to hidden right-wing elements.

Following Thapa's repeated remarks, CPN-UML leader Surya Thapa questioned the public dispute between the Acting Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Deputy General Secretary on social media on Wednesday.

'Do the party's Acting Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Deputy General Secretary not have personal meetings or dialogues? Have public/social media become the preferred choice for debate?' Thapa wrote.

Another leader, Khimlal Bhattarai, expressed outrage, stating that Badal's remarks and language were contrary to the party's policy and traditions.

'The language, style, and perspective presented by our party CPN-UML's Acting Chairman and Parliamentary Party leader Comrade Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal' while addressing a gathering organized by the District Committee in Pokhara yesterday, Chaitra 25, are against party policy and UML schooling,' leader Bhattarai wrote on social media.

He emphasized that the UML practices politics guided by 'People's Multiparty Democracy' and that the language of 'capture' and 'attack' is not party policy. 'Terms like capture, attack, and enemy are not of the UML. This is not the guidance of People's Multiparty Democracy at all. We do not capture; we win by winning the hearts of the people and excelling in competition. Capture is not our policy. We ensure victory through peaceful struggle, not attacks. We compete, we do not make enemies. This is the UML's policy of struggle,' Bhattarai said.

Bhattarai is considered close to UML Vice-Chairman Bishnu Paudel.

CPN-UML Deputy General Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai, alluding to Badal's remarks, commented that 'the clouds have gathered and the People's Multiparty Democracy has been drenched.'

On Thursday morning, he wrote a short poem on social media:

The clouds gathered

It rained heavily

People's Multiparty Democracy was drenched

Madan was stunned

We were left just watching!

(When I suddenly woke up, the sun was already in the room)