Tag: Communist Party of Nepal

Nepal’s Communist bloc | New coalition, old politics

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Last week, Nepal saw dramatic political developments. On March 4, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ abruptly ditched the Nepali Congress, his key coalition partner, and joined hands with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or UML. The Nepali Congress, the largest party in the 275-member parliament with 88 seats, has been forced to the other side of the aisle. With the formation of a new Cabinet under Prachanda, also the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), a communist-dominated dispensation was back in Kathmandu.

While the abrupt collapse of the Maoist-Congress coalition took many by surprise, signs of cracks in the alliance were visible for some time. On March 7, Prachanda used the parliamentary pulpit to slam the Nepali Congress. He blamed the Nepali Congress’s General Committee meeting decisions for irritants between the two parties. The General Committee’s discussions on not forging alliances with any party in the next elections and on a proposal against secularism, Prachanda said, were among the reasons that forced him to form a new alliance.


Also read: Nepal’s coalition politics, a game of musical chairs 

“Above all, people’s war was vilified in the reports presented in the Congress meeting,” said the Maoist leader, who led a bloody war for 10 years in Nepal from 1996. He also said a dissident group in the Nepali Congress had a role in defeating the Maoist Centre candidate in the National Assembly elections.

The Nepali Congress, on the other side, has described Prachanda’s move as political chicanery.

As the blame-game continues, Nepal is witnessing the rise of a Maoist-UML coalition for the second time in recent years; earlier in 2018, the same parties had come together and even merged, only to last three years before imploding.

Self-interest

This time, Prachanda was quick to call his decision to join hands with the UML part of a fresh push to revive Left unity in Nepal. But analysts say the formation of the communist coalition in Kathmandu is more inspired by self-interest — of Prachanda and UML chair K.P. Sharma Oli — than ideology.

“Mr. Prachanda may have laid out multiple reasons for forming a new alliance, but he himself actually is the main reason for the breakup of the Maoist-Congress coalition,” said Tula Narayan Shah, a political analyst. “A vindictive Mr. Oli, meanwhile, was desperate; he was unable to digest that Prachanda had abandoned him after being elected Prime Minister with his backing.”


Also read: Power roller-coaster: On Maoists and UML sharing power in Nepal

After the 2022 general elections, which the Maoist Centre fought in an alliance with the Nepali Congress, Prachanda, whose party won 32 seats, was appointed Prime Minister in December that year with the support of UML, which emerged as the second largest party after the Nepali Congress with 78 seats. However, as is his won’t, Prachanda failed to honour the deal signed with the UML. He backed the Nepali Congress presidential candidate, prompting the UML to withdraw support in February last year, paving the way for the formation of the Maoist-Congress alliance.

Mr. Shah says Prachanda gradually realised that there is a lack of convergence between him and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba on government modus operandi. “As the Prime Minister, it was natural for Prachanda to run the government as per his wish, but Deuba had other ideas,” Mr. Shah said. “Deuba held the view that as the leader of the largest party and key coalition partner, he also needed to have an equal say, if not more.”

That is the reason, according to Mr. Shah, Prachanda, in recent months, was repeatedly saying he was not getting the desired support from Nepali Congress ministers — Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat in particular. Prachanda felt slighted that Mr. Deuba was blocking him from using his prime ministerial prerogative to reshuffle the Cabinet.

Jhalak Subedi, a writer who has closely followed Nepal’s Left politics for many years, says had Mr. Deuba let the Prime Minister change some Ministers, the Maoist-Congress coalition could have lasted for the next several months, or even till the next elections.

Cause and effect

When Prachanda visited China in September last year, he was keen on extracting some projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijing’s flagship infrastructure project spanning across Asia and Europe. Nepal signed up to the BRI in 2017, but not a single project has taken off under the scheme. When Mr. Deuba was Prime Minister before the 2022 elections, he maintained a position that Nepal would not execute any BRI projects under loans.

“Deuba’s position remains the same. The Prime Minister had publicly said that he would move the BRI talks forward during his visit, but upon his return from China, he had nothing to show,” Mr. Subedi said. “Prachanda found himself concerned by the Nepali Congress for issues like these as well.”

The Maoist-Congress breakup, hence was a culmination of internal as well as external factors. A “unified communist force” is something that has captured Nepali communists’ imagination for decades. However, their efforts in the past failed due largely to personality clashes between leaders. The 2018 merger between the Maoists and the UML could not last because of the power struggle between Prachanda and Mr. Oli.

Mr. Subedi says both the Maoist Centre and the UML have realised that their political strengths have been on the wane. “Prachanda may have been thinking that siding with the UML ups his party’s electoral chances. Mr. Oli, a master manoeuvrer, may be thinking the UML is a big force which can easily swallow the Maoists.”

In Kathmandu, the federal government led by Prachanda now has Ministers from the UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist). There is a lack of clarity about political moorings of the RSP, which is a new party with people from different ideologies. The JSP is a left-leaning party, but it does not call itself a communist force.

Mr. Subedi says it would be too early to say the new development would set the Left unity ball in motion. “The Maoist Centre and the UML, however, may stick together till the next elections,” he said. According to him, the Nepali Congress may try to stitch up a loose alliance of non-communist forces in the coming days.

Given the way Prachanda and Mr. Oli function, a power struggle between the two within the next few months won’t be a surprise, say observers. “Even the Congress and the UML may come together, who knows,” says Mr. Shah.

Minendra Rijal, a Nepali Congress leader, said his party should be happy that Prachanda broke the alliance. “This actually paves the way for our party’s return to power,” he said, in an oblique reference to the argument that Nepal continues to be a hotbed of revolving door politics.

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Prachanda forms new Cabinet after leaving Nepali Congress

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Two days after breaking the one-year-old alliance with the Nepali Congress, Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Wednesday formed a new Cabinet by inducting Ministers from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), his new main coalition partner, and two other parties.

In a sudden move, Prachanda on Monday broke up with the Congress and joined hands with former Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli, Chairman of the CPN-UML, with the promise to give a renewed push to the “Leftist movement” in Nepal.

Prachanda, also the Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), inducted eight Ministers from the CPN-UML, five Ministers from his own party, four from the Rastriya Swatantra Party and two from CPN (Unified Socialist) on Wednesday. 

Prachanda and Mr. Oli had a tough time on Tuesday and Wednesday as they struggled to reach a deal on sharing Ministries, just as a jilted Congress was in action to stall the new communist coalition.

With the formation of the new Cabinet with a new set of Ministers, the left alliance is back at the helm in Kathmandu, pushing Congress, the largest force in parliament, to the Opposition seat. 

Bone of contention

Lately, Prachanda had been repeatedly saying that his government had not been able to yield the desired results. Party insiders and political commentators said his remarks, however, stemmed from the notion that Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba was continuously stalling his plan to reshuffle some Ministers. 

“The Prime Minister wanted a free hand in the functioning of the government but he was not getting that. So he was looking for an excuse to ditch the Congress,” said Mumaram Khanal, a writer and political commentator. “This is what often happens when a smaller party leads the government.”

Also, some decisions taken by the General Committee meeting of the Congress party last month had caused discomfort in the Maoist party. Some Congress dissidents had raised questions about alliance politics and had called for not forging alliances with any party in the next elections, which Mr. Deuba agreed to. But more than that, according to observers, a document criticising the Maoist “people’s war” had vexed them the most. 

Mr. Khanal, who in the past was supportive of the Maoist Centre party, said there were some financial interests of Prachanda which were not addressed by Congress Ministers. “But not just that, a host of issues led to the fall of the Maoist-Congress coalition,” added Mr. Khanal.

Prachanda found a good excuse in the impending election of the National Assembly chair. Ignoring an earlier deal with the Congress, the Maoist Centre said it would field its own candidate. The National Assembly chair election is scheduled for March 12. The post is crucial because the chair is a member of the Constitutional Council that recommends members for various constitutional bodies.  

Prachanda has a history of betraying both Mr. Deuba and Mr. Oli.

The CPN-UML and the Maoist Centre had merged in 2018 to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) in a bid to form a large Left force in Nepal. However, power struggle between Prachanda and Mr. Oli led to the implosion of the NCP in 2021.  

After facing a gradual electoral decline over the years, the Maoist Centre fought the 2022 general elections under an alliance with Congress. 

After the Congress party’s refusal to let him lead the government in December 2022, Prachanda swiftly sided with Mr. Oli, and was elected Prime Minister with the CPN-UML’s backing . However, in February last year, the UML pulled out of the government after the Maoist Centre decided to support the Congress candidate in the presidential poll. Congress joined Prachanda’s government. A year later, he is back with Mr. Oli again.

“This Maoist-UML alliance has been formed purely out of Prachanda’s personal interest,” said Mr. Khanal. “His one-point agenda is remaining in power, by hook or by crook. He knew his tenure was going to end as per an earlier deal, so he pulled a switcheroo, which he is very good at.”

Prachanda, a former rebel leader who led an armed struggle from 1996 to 2006, until a few weeks ago was vowing to take the Maoist-Congress alliance to the next elections. 

Commentators in Nepal even dub Prachanda the source of instability, given the way he tends to switch sides at the drop of a hat.

On Monday afternoon, while talking about the change in alliance, Prachanda said: “The country will be in turmoil until the day I die.”

The Maoist-Congress relationship had broken beyond repair, according to Minendra Rijal, a Congress leader. 

“I am not surprised as a communist coalition was bound to happen sooner rather than later,” he said. “It was known to all that Prachanda would do all he could to stall handing over power regardless of the deal that had been forged.”

According to an agreement that the Maoists and Congress signed in February last year, Prachanda was supposed to hand pver power to Mr. Deuba after two years. “Prachanda was not willing to do so. Already in his third stint as Prime Minister, Prachanda wants to continue in power as long as he can,” said Mr. Rijal. “Therefore, that he would reach out to Mr. Oli was not a matter of if but when.”   

Renewed bid for Left unity?

Hours after breaking the old alliance, Mr. Prachanda on Monday said that he would relaunch the communist unity efforts immediately.

Observers, however, say a communist unity is a far-fetched idea. 

Though both the Maoists and the CPN-UML call themselves “communists”, they are poles apart ideologically. The CPN-UML has for long been a vocal critic of the Maoists’ “people’s war.” 

Hari Sharma, a writer and political commentator, described the new development as “nothing but some interest groups coming together.”

“Nepali political parties changing partnerships frequently in the name of forging an alliance is rather a dalliance,” said Mr. Sharma. 

A communist unity in Nepal is something Beijing has always wished for, and the new developments may come to its liking. On Tuesday, during a regular press briefing in Beijing, noting the developments in Nepal , Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said, “We would like to work with the new government to advance the China-Nepal strategic partnership of cooperation featuring ever-lasting friendship for development and prosperity”. 

New Delhi has not reacted to the suddenly evolved communist-dominated dispensation in Kathmandu.

That he was a vocal critic of India is a thing of the past and Prachanda cannot afford to ruffle Delhi’s feathers now, , say observers.

(Sanjeev Satgainya is an independent journalist based in Kathmandu)

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