Nepali Congress Leaders Trade Blame Over Election Defeats at Review Meeting

Biratnagar. Nepali Congress candidate Phoolkumar Lalwani, who was defeated from Morang Constituency No. 5, expressed his outrage at the provincial-level review meeting organized by the Congress in Biratnagar. He said, 'I say, if you have any shame, those who did not vote for Congress should not sit in this hall. Do you have no shame? Provincial ministers who have already served, party officials, openly voting for the bell or the umbrella instead of the tree? Where has your shame disappeared to?.'

After leader Lalwani expressed these words, the hall erupted in thunderous applause.

In the election review program held in the presence of General Secretary Gagan Thapa and other officials, Lalwani emphasized that the party needs a ruthless operation. 'We must perform a ruthless operation, Mr. Chairman, whether it involves ministers, members of parliament, or provincial officials. You must have the courage. They say let's erase the bitterness the day after the election ends? The bitterness hasn't even started yet, what is there to erase?,' he said.

Defeated candidates speaking at the review meeting under the Congress's 'Jara' campaign expressed similar outrage as Lalwani. However, the victorious Ilam 1 candidate, Nishkal Rai, shared his joy. Rai stated that he was able to achieve victory in Ilam 1 because General Secretary Gagan Thapa, who won through a special convention, included the new generation like them.

'We created an environment within the party where everyone felt safe. The main reason I won the election in Ilam 1 is that new flowers were allowed to bloom in the party,' he said, 'When the party becomes like a beautiful garden and everyone gets an opportunity to bloom there, then the public also trusts the tree.'

The voices of the leaders participating in the election review meeting revealed a mix of self-satisfaction, anger and hatred toward old leaders, and accounts of non-cooperation by their own party members. The most discussed topic at the review meeting was that active members of the party did not vote for the party's official candidates. Morang 5's Lalwani added, 'In the districts where we made thousands of active members, the votes for the tree symbol were even lower than the number of members. This is not just betrayal; it is a conspiracy to end the party's existence.'

A similar pain was felt by Kumar Luintel of Okhaldhunga, who was defeated by a margin of only 5 votes. 'I did not lose to outside candidates; I was defeated by the invisible webs hidden within the homes of my own friends. 5 votes is nothing, but I faced defeat due to the inactivity of two outgoing central members of the party,' he said. He claimed non-cooperation, pointing toward outgoing central members Ramhari Khatiwada and Pradip Kumar Sunuwar.

Sarita Prasai of Jhapa-2 and Rajiv Koirala of Sunsari-2 also drew the leadership's attention with evidence that their own organization's officials had colluded with the opposition and worked day and night to defeat the tree symbol. The leaders who have won elections multiple times and reached power were the biggest targets in the meeting. They were accused of staying home instead of helping new candidates in their own constituencies. 'After not getting tickets, central members and outgoing honorable members left no stone unturned to defeat the party,' they said.

Bheshraj Acharya of Ilam-2 even stated that the district chairman himself worked to defeat him. 'The party gave me a ticket, but the district leaders did not go out for election campaigning. Instead, Congress voters were incited to vote for the sun. They said it won't win. Friends told me that the chairman himself said he had 4,000 votes cast for the sun,' he said.

Binod Bantawa Rai of Bhojpur and Dinesh Rai of Dhankuta expressed concern that the Congress's image is becoming corrupt and status-quoist in the eyes of the public. 'The public has started to understand that Congress means corruption, misrule, and a club of old leaders,' they said, 'When the names of Congress leaders are linked to various scandals, including the fake Bhutanese refugee case, the heads of the workers going to the villages to ask for votes are bowed in shame.'

Congress leader Minendra Rijal analyzed the statistics. He argued that in places where old leaders won in the previous election, the public sought new faces this time. Keshavraj Pandey of Jhapa 1 also emphasized that old leaders should now make room for the new generation and bring ideological clarity.

Their analysis was that while the Congress talks about its history and sacrifice, the new generation is looking for a future, and new forces that have emerged aggressively through social media (TikTok, Facebook) have broken the Congress's vote bank.

Rajendra Ghimire of Jhapa-3 hinted that Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula did not cooperate with him. Bhojpur Chairman Binod Bantawa Rai said that the Congress had to suffer a huge loss because it could not take a clear stance on the identity movement that arose after the naming of Koshi Province.

Morang Congress Chairman Dik Bahadur Limbu emphasized that the party should move forward by reconciling. He said that talking about canceling the memberships given by BP Koirala and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and issuing new ones has hurt their self-respect.

General Secretary Gagan Thapa delivered his speech after the review reporting by nearly three dozen leaders. Addressing the serious issues raised by the participants, he said that the Congress is on the path to reform. Thapa made a strong attack on leaders who win elections multiple times but do not support new candidates.

'If a leader has won elections 5-6 times from the same constituency, became a minister, reached power, but today does not go to help a new party colleague who is a candidate in that same constituency, then shouldn't questions be raised about such leaders?,' he asked. Congress Vice President Pushpa Bhusal, General Secretaries Pradip Paudel, Gururaj Ghimire, and others also addressed the program.