Uncontrolled instability in Nepal

Former president Bidhya Devi Bhandari last week officially made her comeback to national politics at an event commemorating her late husband UML leader Madan Bhandari’s 70th birth anniversary.

Bhandari’s announcement was not a surprise, nor was the furious flutter it created both within and outside the UML. A former president returning to party politics sets a dangerous precedent, many said.    

“Now that I have been released of my previous political responsibilities, I have renewed my party membership with the righteous intention of remaining in the CPN-UML and continuing the party's political journey,” Bhandari said, not very convincingly.

Nepal’s Constitution does not prohibit a former head of state from returning to active politics once their presidential term is over, essentially leaving such decisions to ethics rather than any legality. But her return to the UML fold has angered party leaders who considered themselves Oli’s successors as well commentators who saw it as yet another example of the deep rot in Nepal’s politics.

‘Bidya Devi Bhandari has not tired of ‘serving’ us despite having held multiple ministerial positions, high-level party positions, and serving two terms as President, but the country and its citizens are tired of her unceasing and immoral ‘service’,’ political commentator Muma Ram Khanal wrote sardonically on social media. ‘Please do not embarrass us through your lifetime ‘service’.’

Bhandari tried to mollify critics by pledging to forego all perks and facilities she is entitled to as a former head of state. This was met with enthusiastic cheers from supporters at the public function. Prime Minister KP Oli, sitting right beside her on the stage, remained stone-faced. He has been against Bhandari’s political comeback, and has tried to talk her out of it.  

Oli has reasons to worry, as Bhandari has made it clear that she intends to run for party chair in the next UML general convention. There are also those within the UML who have grown resentful of Oli’s leadership, and this has polarised the party into two camps with leaders like Ishwar Pokharel in Bhandari’s corner.

Oli wields absolute authority over the party, particularly after he sidelined and silenced rivals Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, and Bamdev Gautam. 

He has removed the party’s 70-year age limit to hold leadership position so that he can continue to be chair even as he approaches the end of term limit, and questions about his health after two kidney transplants.

Bhandari wasted no time in wading right into politics to forge alliances. Last week she met Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah to discuss “latest developments”. She is said to have urged Kathmandu’s popular independent mayor to enter national politics through a party. The mayor is keeping his cards close to his chest.  

The former president’s return to active politics has also not sat well with other parties, either. Nepali Congress (NC) president Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Oli’s coalition partner, is said to have raised issue with Bhandari’s comeback. The NC Central Committee meeting this week was abuzz with corridor talk about how retired presidents returning to politics affects not just the UML, but undermines Nepal’s democracy.  

The UML is not the only party roiled in internal strife. The NC Central Committee meetings turned lively as the rank and file fed up with long-serving Deuba and the higher political profile Foreign Minister Arzu Rana, his wife, demanded an overhaul of the leadership. 

The surname Koirala still has strong brand equity in the NC, and a rival faction led by Shekhar Koirala has questioned Deuba’s competence and has intensified calls for the party’s next general convention to be held on time. His cousin, Shashank Koirala also supports a constitutional amendment to revert Nepal back to Hindu state – possibly with an eye on the 2027 election.

The NC’s young turks are no longer young. Party General Secretary Gagan Thapa is approaching middle age while waiting for a greater leadership role with the promise of fresh new blood to rejuvenate the party.  

Meanwhile, CPN-Unified Socialists chair and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is facing calls for resignation from within his party after being charged with corruption by Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for alleged involvement in the Patanjali land scam. 

Nepal, who has been stripped of his lawmaker status, is currently out on bail. He has said the case against him is politically motivated, fuelled by one-time comrade K P Oli's vendetta. 

The CPN-US members do not seem keen on Nepal taking the already beleaguered party down with him. Firebrand leader Ram Kumari Jhakri called for a new leadership at an event of the party’s youth wing last week, obviously pushing herself as a possible successor. 

“The party chair is facing legal and constitutional challenges, we cannot move forward with this dead weight on our shoulders,” Jhakri said, calling for an early general convention to choose new leadership.

CPN-US leadership has since admonished her gently about her remark, but others like Jhalanath Khanal and Ghanashyam Bhushal have lent their support. Khanal, a former prime minister himself, even asked for Nepal’s resignation at the party’s secretariat meeting earlier this week. 

Over at the Maoist-Centre, Pushpa Kamal Dahal is also said to be at loggerheads with top comrades, particularly Deputy General Secretary Janardan Sharma, who used to be a guerrilla commander during the conflict.  

Dahal and Sharma’s relationship has been strained since the party’s last general convention, when Dahal bypassed Sharma for General Secretary. The two have traded barbs in public and private since then.

Sharma has long called for competition in party leadership, but like Oli and Deuba, Dahal is reluctant to give up the reins. Dahal has reportedly been reluctant to hold a general convention fearing he will be voted out of his chairmanship.  

In response, Dahal has attempted to fill the ranks with his own confidants, including actively lobbying for the return of former vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun to active politics despite objections from the party. Like Bidya Bhandari, this has not been welcomed within the party and outside.

And then there is the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the fourth largest in Parliament whose chair, former tv anchor leader Rabi Lamichhane, is in detention for multiple charges of defrauding cooperatives.

The three main parties see the RSP as a threat in 2027 and want to tie Lamichhane up with court convictions, but his prolonged detention has actually allowed him to gather some public sympathy – at least on social media.

The RSP has rallied around Lamichhane in public, but there are rifts within the party. In April, MP Sumana Shrestha resigned as the party’s joint general secretary, levelling criticism at the leadership and the lack of intra-party democracy and calling for reforms. But Lamichhane’s legal troubles have put a dent on the RSP’s Mission-2084 election campaign, which has come to a standstill. 

Aisde from internal feuds in all the main parties, the four main parties are also jostling for advantage ahead of 2027. And last week, the Janata Samajwadi Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party both withdrew from the alliance.  

Speculation is rife of a rift between the two largest parties in the coalition. This is driven by the two parties, which have been bitter rivals since 1990 but are now partners in government, in the leadup to elections.  

In public, the two parties have maintained that the coalition remains strong as ever. Oli is said to be considering recalling some of his ministers to pacify the NC’s dissatisfaction with UML cabinet members. Deuba seems determined not to let the coalition collapse ahead of his turn to be prime minister for the sixth time next year as per a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with Oli. 

The cement that binds the coalitions together is the mutual threat they feel about corruption probes of their leaders. The former RSP-NC-Maoist coalition collapsed last year after Deuba and Oli got wind that Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane had started investigating the involvement of their top leaders on the fake refugee and tea estate scams.  

For the moment, though, it seems as though the relationship between Oli and Deuba is more stable than the support both leaders have within their own  parties. But the question as the elections approaches is, for how much longer.