[ad_1]
31 May, Kathmandu. It is confirmed that the 10th National Congress of CPN Unified Socialists, scheduled for the third time, will be held on June 16-20. The leaders are confident that the convention will be held as the secretariat meeting held at the central office Aloknagar on Wednesday decided on the selection of representatives.
Deputy General Secretary and Spokesperson Jaganath Khatiwada said, “On the 5th of June, the representatives will be elected all over the country together, and we will participate in the Mahamela of the Congress”. The leaders of the Central Committee were doubtful that the convention scheduled for mid-June would be held as it had been postponed twice before (January 14-18 and June 3-7). Some leaders argued in the party meeting that the convention was not possible during the rainy season.
But the secretariat meeting has made a decision regarding the selection of representatives and decided that the convention will not be held. “The situation is different when there is a disaster, the convention will not move in any other situation”, said the spokesperson Khatiwada.
According to the decision of the secretariat, one representative will be elected for the convention equal to 125 party members. One woman equal to three representatives, one youth out of seven and one Dalit equal to seven will be mandatory.
The United Socialist Party has also decided to bring 70 percent representatives from geography and 30 percent representatives from non-geographical committees. Another decision made by the secretariat meeting on Wednesday is that the members of the Central Committee and Commission will automatically be representatives.
The previous party meeting had passed a resolution that the central leaders should also be elected from the workers.
In this way, it has already become clear about the aspiring leaders of the unified socialists, who have ensured that the convention will be held through the decision regarding the selection of representatives. The ongoing power-struggle to take over the leadership of the party can be understood from the fact that the dispute within the Yuva Sangh Nepal, which is close to the party, and the fact that the secretariat meeting on Wednesday could not make any decision about the dispute can be understood.
According to a leader, a decision could not be made regarding the dispute between the youth union due to a disagreement between president Madhav Kumar Nepal and former prime minister Jhalnath Khanal. Former Prime Minister Khanal’s proposal was to take action against Nitesh Paudel, who declared a parallel committee in Yuva Sangh. Khanal’s argument was that ‘the party cannot run with the tendency to announce parallel committees when things do not happen as they say.’
Some of the leaders including Paudel who announced the parallel committee last Saturday (June 26) have been expelled by Krishna Kumar Vishwakarma, president of Yuva Sangh. The decision of expulsion was given to the party by Yuva Sangh, so it became the agenda of the meeting.
But Madhav Nepal was not ready to punish Paudel, who was also his nephew. ‘Initiatives should be increased to solve the problem. But we should also think about the danger that the number of insurgents may increase’, Nepal said.
This means that the parallel activities of Yuva Sangh can be easily assumed to be due to the power struggle within the party. ‘The decision to announce a parallel committee may not be known. But even after knowing, Madhav Nepal did not stop,’ says the leader, ‘Not stopping to announce a parallel committee also means giving an opportunity to one side of Yuva Sangh to demonstrate its power.’
The controversy of the youth union came to the surface only in August last year. As soon as the party decided to hold its 10th Congress, parallel activities were started in the youth union. At that time, people close to Khanal wanted to make Vishwakarma the coordinator of the youth association, and those close to Nepal prepared to make Paudel the coordinator by holding a separate meeting.
But the party intervened and made Vishwakarma the coordinator and Poudel the co-coordinator. After that, the differences of the Yuva Sangh, which seemed calm, have flared up again.
Not only in the youth union, but also in other organizational decisions of the party, there has been a continuous struggle between the president Nepal and the former prime minister Khanal. Last year in August, Khanal publicly expressed his displeasure when President Nepal divided the tasks of the leaders through Apani.
President Nepal had to hold a separate meeting to resolve the dispute within the party after dividing the work by giving priority to the leaders close to him. Party Vice President Ghanendra Basnet, looking at such activities going on within the party, says that even though there is no official announcement, it is confirmed that there is a fierce competition between Madhav Nepal (71 years old) and Jhalnath Khanal (74 years old) for the post of president.
“It seems that Madhav in Nepal thinks that because he led the reorganization of the party, he should get the chairman once again,” says Basnet, “but as the leader of the parliamentary party, there is a possibility that Madhav will become the Prime Minister of Nepal, so there is a desire to take the leadership of the party in Jhalnath Khanal.”
Khanal’s challenge
Jhalnath Khanal, who supported Madhav Nepal to split the UML, started to hold different views after the registration of the Unified Socialists. His dissent started with theoretical issues.
Madhav, who wanted to follow the theoretical and organizational structure of the UML, wanted to continue the multi-party democracy of the people of Nepal. Which he continued to advocate himself and through the leaders close to him.
Some leaders within the party had said that there was a wrong conclusion that Jabaj’s justification had ended just some time ago. Jabaki Khanal is of the conclusion that after the people’s revolution of 2063, the stage of the populist movement has been completed. Khanal is saying that the future course of action is socialism through public forums and political reports.
Due to this contradiction between Madhav and Jhalnath, the unified socialists could not even clarify the theoretical course of action. Even when going to the 2079 general election, the unified socialist was in confusion about the theoretical course of action.
However, the leaders say that differences on theoretical issues have been resolved. To show that the differences have been resolved, President Nepal and Leader Khanal have written reports with separate titles. Madhav Nepal has prepared a 57-page ‘Political Report’ and Jhalnath Khanal has prepared a 65-page ‘Socialist Program of Nepali Characteristics’.
In its report, Nepal has been mentioned repeatedly. He has also claimed to be the heir of Jawaj. The UML leadership is not even a multi-party populist of the people. The UML has turned into a bunch of self-interested right-wing opportunists’, said Madhav’s report. But Madhav agrees that the future course of action is socialism. With this conclusion, Khanal has prepared his entire report.
In this way, Madhav Nepal is openly arguing with Khanal, who is challenging him through organizational and theoretical programs, on political decisions. For the latest example of this, the scene seen after the power equation changed on February 21 can be taken.
Madhav Nepal was against the current power equation led by CPN-UML. Because Madhav Nepal would have got the Prime Ministership in Alopalo if the equation with Nepali Congress remained. But Jhalnath Khanal took the opposite stand.
After the local elections of 2079, Khanal started making public statements about breaking the alliance with the Congress. After losing the House of Representatives elections from Ilam-1, Khanal started to oppose the Congress-led coalition even more loudly.
On February 21, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda decided to form an alliance with UML as per Khanal’s wish. Khanal openly supported Prachanda’s decision and issued a public statement in favor of unity through the Left Alliance. In other words, Jhalnath Khanal is not ready to cooperate with the Congress to fulfill Madhav Nepal’s desire to become the Prime Minister.
Political analyst Narayan Dhakal says that the background of the differences between Madhav Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal is an ideological struggle. ‘The conflict between Madhav and Jhalnath is ideological, therefore it is also natural’, analyst Dhakal says, ‘They are together, but they are leaders of different lines. Madhav Nepal is a moderate leader. But Jhalnath Khanal is a more classical leader.’
He says that he could not agree with Jhalnath Khanal as Madhav Nepal has always been a liberal leader except for the ninth convention of UML. Analyst Dhakal argues that it is natural to see its effect in the struggle for leadership.
Half a century at the helm
Basnet, the vice-president of the United Socialist Party, says that the message of the transfer of leadership should be given from the upcoming convention. It has been a long time since they led. Both of them have got the opportunity to lead the party and the country,” says Basnet, “Even now, it does not seem that workers and people will be attracted by taking them forward. Therefore, it would have been possible to pass it on unanimously, it would have developed a culture.’
Basnet suggests that Madhav and Jhalnath should think about it as it is a matter of pride for the leaders of the same generation to have the opportunity to lead the party and the country for half a century.
However, Madhav and Jhalnath, who are among the top leaders who brought the communist movement from the UML side to the leadership of power, have been at the helm of national politics since the 1930s. While uniting and empowering the fragmented communist movement, these two leaders established themselves in the top role by forming the Co-ordination Center.
On 15-16 June 2032, Madhav was the CP Mainali secretary and second rank leader when the Koke was formed. Another member of the three-member Politburo was Ramchandra Yadav. Mukund Neupane, Amrit Bohra, Jhalnath Khanal, Govind Neupane and Manilal Rai were in that committee.
In other words, Madhav and Jhalnath were among the 8 leaders of Koke formed 50 years ago. These two leaders have repeatedly led the communist party of UML for 27 years. Koke and CP Mainali, the party chief of Male formed in 2035 Salma, but Madhav and Jhalnath were still in influential roles.
After 2039 years, Jhalnath became the head of Khanal Male. Even when Madan Bhandari was elected General Secretary from the 4th Congress held on 9-14 August 2046, Madhav Nepal and Jhalnath were still in the top roles. After the death of Madan Bhandari in 2050, Madhav became the head of Nepal Party for 15 consecutive years.
Madhav Nepal resigned from the post of General Secretary only after the party was badly defeated in the first Constituent Assembly election of 2064. But after Madhav resigned, the party went under the leadership of Jhalnath. Jhalnath, who took over the leadership of the party as acting general secretary, won the chairmanship from the 8th convention of 2065. Khanal led the party till the ninth convention of 2071.
Thus Madhav and Jhalnath Khanal led the party for 27 years. When the party chief left, he remained a senior leader. Both these leaders became the Prime Minister of the country.
But after the election of 2074, the UML could not remain united due to the dispute within the then Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which was formed by uniting with the Maoists. In 2077, when the unity of the CPN was broken, the UML also split. On 2nd August 2078, Madhav Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal left UML and formed Integrated Socialists.
At that time, 23 members of the House of Representatives, 8 members of the National Assembly, 53 members of the Provincial Assembly (from all provinces) and more than 1,400 people’s representatives at the local level were united socialists. But Madhav-Jhalnath could not save this power.
In the November 2079 election, 10 members of the House of Representatives, 24 members of the Provincial Assembly (from all provinces) and 20 heads of municipalities were won by the Unified Socialists. In the election of the House of Representatives, it could not get the recognition of the national party because it could not get three percent votes (to cut the threshold) on the proportional side. When the election was contested from a five-party alliance, the United Socialists got only 2.82 percent (298,391) votes on the proportional side.
Whereas in 2056, Male, which broke away from UML, got 6.59 percent (567,987 votes). But there was no proportional system as it is now and there was no culture of alliance. Ashok Rai, who later separated from the UML and formed the Federal Samajwadi Party, also got 1.20 percent votes (one lakh 8 thousand 863) in the second Constituent Assembly election of 2070.
But the united socialists led by two former prime ministers could not even cross the threshold.
Political analyst Dhakal concludes that a party can no longer be formed under the leadership of Madhav or Jhalnath. Analyst Dhakal says, ‘There is no possibility of them strengthening this party, it is going to decay’, ‘I have been a witness of their ability for a long time. Both of them cannot advance the party on that basis.’
Dhakal says that these two leaders will not stop the erosion of the unified socialists as they have failed in the agenda they agreed to after the rebellion from the UML. “Even if we get 10 seats through alliance, we cannot stand alone. That’s why they don’t get through,” he says.
[ad_2]
