Year in Review: 2082 Marks a Period of Unprecedented Decline for CPN-UML

Kathmandu. While the year 2082 was a time of happiness and change for the younger generation, it has been recorded as the most painful and sorrowful year for the CPN-UML.

The collapse of the powerful government led by party chairman KP Sharma Oli, the chairman and prime minister himself fleeing Baluwatar by helicopter to save his life, the humiliating defeat in the Falgun 21 elections, and finally, the arrest of Chairman Oli himself on criminal charges were events the UML had to endure in 2082. Leaders say these four events are being analyzed as matters that caused extreme distress to the UML members.

'The year 2082 was extremely tragic and painful for UML members,' said Central Secretary Bhanubhakta Dhakal. 'Since there is no room left to fall lower or suffer more than this pain and sorrow, we hope that the coming year 2083 will be bright for us.'

In fact, the popularity and public trust the UML earned while leading the government in 2051 had become almost zero by 2082, as shown by the latest election results. UML leaders themselves admit that this happened due to the extreme obsession with power and greed that grew among the party's leaders and cadres.

'The work done by the government led by Manmohan Adhikari in 2051 increased the public's trust and faith in the UML,' said former UML Vice-Chairman Yubaraj Gyawali. 'At that time, some good work for the people was initiated by the government, which resulted in immense public trust in the UML.'

Due to the work done when Manmohan Adhikari became Prime Minister in 2051, the UML was able to secure 60 percent of the popular vote in the 2054 local elections.

'Especially after 2054, the greed and obsession for power began to appear as a serious problem within the UML from the bottom to the top,' said Gyawali. 'As a result, the habits, behaviors, and tendencies of many of our leaders and cadres turned into a mindset of benefiting from power.'

For this reason, in recent days, a mindset of doing anything for power grew among UML leaders and cadres. 'Democratic values weakened. Party systems and ideological principles were overshadowed,' recalls leader Gyawali, who has stepped away from active politics. 'It reached a point where it seemed that the People's Multiparty Democracy (Janatako Bahudaliya Janabad) was only about elections.'

In Gyawali's analysis, despite that, after the two parties merged to contest the 2074 elections, the Nepali people trusted them again and gave them nearly a two-thirds majority.

Although the public gave nearly two-thirds of the votes in 2074, the then-UML and Maoist-formed NCP fell apart within three years due to leadership clashes. At that time, not only did the NCP split, but the UML itself was divided into two. 'That vote given by the people with trust could not be utilized; the party split, and the parliament was dissolved. As these and similar activities gradually increased, the decline began after 2075,' recalled Gyawali.

He stated that after that, contradictions and enmity began between the communists. 'In the end, it reached a state where the two largest parties in parliament joined hands to form a government,' he said. 'Even the dissatisfaction in society regarding the Congress-UML alliance for the 2084 elections exploded in the events of Bhadra 23 and 24.'

Even after all this, the UML leadership did not move towards self-criticism. Instead, exclusionary tendencies, such as pushing critics to the wall, increased. The UML, which held a legislative convention on Bhadra 22, 2082, removed the two-term limit and age limit from that same convention. The subsequent Gen-Z movement not only ousted the UML from power, but the UML's 10th National Convention held in the last week of Mangsir 2082 approved Oli for a third term as chairman.

'In the election that followed, the UML dropped from 78 seats to just 25,' Gyawali said about the UML's serial downward journey. 'Everything went wrong. Our own internal weaknesses were the main reason for this.'

Not only Gyawali, but UML Vice-Chairman and Member of the House of Representatives Guru Baral says that although 2082 was a year for the UML to gain some strong experience, it had to face challenges towards the end.

'Although we gained some strong experience in 2082, some challenges were added towards the end, and we had to face them,' said Baral. 'The last six months have not been pleasant for the overall politics of Nepal, not just the UML.'

Vice-Chairman Baral said that past experience has taught the lesson that the party must be made strong and united ideologically. 'The broken relationship between leaders and cadres and the hurt feelings must be restored; they need healing,' he told Ratopati. 'The UML will not back down from the journey of development, good governance, and economic prosperity. For that, it will move forward while also keeping a watch on the current government.'

In Professor Krishna Pokharel's understanding, the popularity the UML earned after 2051 did not just collapse by 2082; the public's hearts were hurt, and the relationship between leaders and cadres broke, forcing it to face its weakest state in history.

'The UML's downward journey started from 2075. There was a chance to improve during this time, but the leadership ignored it,' said Professor Pokharel, who has studied the UML closely. 'The symptoms of this were seen in the 2079 elections. Unexpected results came in that year's election, and new forces emerged.'

Although that warning was not just for the UML but for all the so-called old parties, they did not move towards correcting themselves; instead, the two major parties (Congress and UML) moved towards running the government in turns.

'This agreement further fueled the UML's downward journey,' said Pokharel. 'Even then, the arrogance and ego that the UML was still ahead in popular votes grew in the leadership. As a result, it suffered all-around damage and became the weakest in history.'