Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist)

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) (Nepali: नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (एकीकृत-समाजवादी), romanized: Nēpāla kamyuniṣṭa pārṭī (Ēkīkr̥ta-Samājavādī)), abbreviated as CPN (Unified Socialist) is a political party in Nepal led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. As of July 2023, the party leads Socialist Front and is an important ally in the governing coalition.^[8]

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी (एकीकृत समाजवादी)
Abbreviation	CPN (US) or CPN (Socialist)
Chairman	Madhav Kumar Nepal
General Secretary	Ghanashyam Bhusal^[1]
Founder	Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, Pradeep Nepal and others
Founded	18 August 2021
Registered	25 August 2021
Split from	CPN (UML)
Headquarters	Min Bhawan, Aaloknagar, Kathmandu
Newspaper	Kalam News^[2]
Student wing	All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU)^[3]
Youth wing	Youth Federation Nepal^[3]
Women's wing	All Nepal Women's Association (Socialist)^[3]
Labour wing	Integrated Centre of Trade Unions, Nepal
Peasant's wing	All Nepal Peasants Association
Membership (2021)	136,000^[4]
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism People's Multiparty Democracy^[5]^[6]
Political position	Left-wing
Alliance	Samajbadi Morcha^[7]
House of Representatives	10 / 275
National Assembly	8 / 59
Provincial Assemblies	25 / 550
Chief Ministers	0 / 7
Mayors/Chairs	25 / 753
Councillors	986 / 35,011
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
www.cpnus.org.np
Politics of Nepal Political parties Elections

Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is the chairman of the party and former Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal serves as the senior leader.^[9][10][11] The party was officially registered at the Election Commission, Nepal on 18 August 2021 while it received its certificate of registration on 25 August when the Election Commission verified its application with signature of more than twenty percent in both central committee and federal parliamentary party.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Ideology

The party's ideology consists of Marxism–Leninism and support for a multi-party system. The party also favors socialist-oriented economy.^[16]

History

Formation

 

Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, founder of the CPN (Unified Socialist)

The President of Nepal, on the recommendation of the council of ministers issued second amendment on political parties related act on 18 August 2021 relaxing the requirements to split parties with 20 percent or more members of the Parliamentary Party and the Central Committee of the political party.^[17][18]

This same amendment opened the way to formalize the splits caused due to the dispute between two factions of Janata Samajbadi Party, Nepal and CPN(UML) respectively. The CPN(UML) faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal which had a long dispute with CPN(UML) chairman KP Sharma Oli had applied to register their party by the name ''CPN (Unified Socialist)'' with the Election Commission.^[19] However, the Election Commission requested him not to register under a preregistered name by including some adjectives.^[20]

 

Former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, senior leader of the CPN (Unified Socialist)

At the time of the launch of the party, leaders claimed to have 31 members in the two national houses of parliament including 23 from House of Representatives and 8 from National Assembly.^[21] A Central Committee with 95 members was announced as well.^[21][22] However, many politicians of the mother party CPN(UML) had not finalised their decision yet including party less leader Bam Dev Gautam.^[23] Madhav Kumar Nepal was announced to act as the coordinator of the party.^[24]

The decision of Nepal to form a new party was however met with some criticism from within his own faction. The second generation leaders close to him boycotted the decision except party secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha and Ram Kumari Jhakri. Leaders including Ghanashyam Bhusal and Yogesh Bhattarai sided with KP Sharma Oli for party unity. This faction included leaders like Yubaraj Gyawali, Asta Laxmi Shakya, Bhim Rawal, Ghanashyam Bhusal, Gokarna Bista, Bhim Acharya, Yogesh Bhattarai and standing committee members including Surendra Pandey, Raghuji Panta and Amrit Bohora.^[25] They even attended the standing committee meeting of 8th Bhadra which called upon Nepal faction for party unity for a final time and instructed CPN (UML) to fulfill their 10 points demand. Howeven the 10 point demand was never followed.^[26][27] Later Bhim Rawal and Ghanashyam Bhusal were ditched and side lined from the party after 10th general convention of former party for not following party supremo Oli.

On the same day (8th Bhadra), Nepal arranged a meeting where he presented the party's doctrine and announced that People's Multiparty Democracy would be their guiding philosophy.^[28][29]

Party Authentication

 

Party office of CPN (Unified Socialist)

Following the registration, the Election Commission had summoned CPN (Unified Socialist) on 9th Bhadra for authentication. As per the new provision the party had to present signatures 20% of either the central committee or the parliamentary party to authenticate the registration.^[30] The party was able to meet the threshold with 55 out of 205 members of the central committee and 9 out of 33 of the National Assembly and 24 out of 121 of House of Representatives.^[31]

Among these members, Pradeep Nepal, a central committee member who was earlier close to Oli, was present during signature session.^[32] The signature of Jhalanath Khanal who signed it from Delhi was counted although the Election Commission had rejected his previous request to accept such signatures as he had been in Delhi for his kidney transplant.^[33][34] However, the Election Commission rejected to accept the signatures of Som Prasad Pandey, Maya Gyawali, Tulsa Thapa and Sharada Devi Bhatta as they had not signed the earlier application for party registration.^[35] Letter a petition was filed at Supreme Court which allowed them to join the new party.

Organization development and first local election

The party election just eight months after the party formation. Even though the period of organization development was short, party caders got elected unopposed as chairperson of Kaike and Chharka Tangsong rural municipalities of Dolpa district which remained the highest won unopposed by any party.^[36] While the party went to election without alliance in Madhesh Province, the party won six local levels out of which four were from Rautahat, the home district of party chair Madhav Kumar Nepal. The party gave close contest to Nepali Congress. Here, the party won five municipalities and one rural municipality. The party won mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan city and Hetauda Sub-metropolitan city destroying red fort of CPN (UML).^{[37][38][clarification needed]} Although the party obtained support of alliance in numerous places, it was able to bag only twenty local levels signing that the party organization had still not developed as expected.^[39]

As a whole, the party won 20 heads, 24 deputy heads, 190 ward chairs and 753 ward members with a total of 986 seats throughout the country. The party went most successful in Madhesh Province where it bagged 6 heads, 5 deputy heads, 80 ward chairs and 310 ward members with a total of 401 seats and that too without any pre electoral alliance contributing to 40% of total national wins.^[40]

Party merger and integration

A number of parties have merged with CPN (Unified Socialist) since its formation:

Year	Party	Leader
2021^[41]	CPN (Janavadi)	Devendra Singh Mahato
2021^[42]	CPN (Unified)	Alok Rayamajhi
2021^[42]	CPN (Gaurabshali)	Bhabishwar Parajuli
2021^[43]	Unified Socialist Front	Sewantraj Bhandari
2022^[44]	Independent Communist Group	Ghanashyam Bhusal

Organization and structure

Central organization

Secretariat

A twelve-member secretariat (also known as High Command) of the party was created. It included:

• Chairperson: Madhav Kumar Nepal
• General secretary: Ghanashyam Bhusal
• Members: Jhala Nath Khanal, Ram Chandra Jha, Rajendra Prasad Pandey, Beduram Bhusal, Pramesh Kumar Hamal, Jayanti Rai, Prakash Jwala, Gangalal Tuladhar, Bijay Paudel and Jagannath Khatiwada^[45][46]

Standing Committee

The 34 member Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau has been formed.^[47]

Politburo

A 86-member politburo has been formed after the formation of the standing committee and central committee.^[47]

Central Committee

The central committee had a total of 355 members.^[47]

Leadership

The party has one chairperson, seven deputy chairpersons, one General secretary, four Deputy general secretary and six Secretary. Altogether there are 18 party portfolio holders. Jhalanath Khanal is senior leader and Pradeep Nepal is the leader of the party and are kept at position two and three respectively.^[48][49][50]

Chairperson

• Madhav Kumar Nepal

Deputy chairperson

• Beduram Bhusal
• Rajendra Prasad Pandey
• Pramesh Kumar Hamal
• Dhanendra Basnet
• Keshav Lal Shrestha
• Dharmanath Prasad Sah
• Jayanti Rai

General Secretary

• Ghanashyam Bhusal

Deputy General Secretary

• Prakash Jwala
• Gangalal Tuladhar
• Bijay Paudel
• Jagannath Khatiwada

Secretary

• Nagendra Chaudhary
• hari parajuli
• Garima Shah
• Rajendra Kumar Rai
• Ram Kumari Jhakri
• Jeevan Ram Shrestha

Provincial committees

Province^[51]^[50]	Incharge	Deputy Incharge	Chairman	Deputy Chairman	Secretary	Deputy secretary
Province No. 1	Dhanendra Basnet	Rajendra Kumar Rai	Baldev Chaudhary	Dharma Raj Niraula Rajan Rai	Mahesh Regmi	Sarita Thapa
Madhesh	Dharma Nath Prasad Sah	Ratneshwar Goit Ram Pirit Paswan	Ram Chandra Yadav	Laxman Paudel Ram Chandra Sah Teli	Sudhir Sah	Narayan Acharya
Bagmati	Kedar Neupane	Jeevan Ram Shrestha Sadhya Bahadur Bhandari Krishna Prasad Khanal	Sabitra Bhusal	Bidur Sapkota Tok Bahadur Waiba	Laxman Lamsal
Gandaki	Keshav Lal Shrestha	Tul Bahadur Gurung Sharda Subedi	Ramji Sharma	Shree Nath Baral Prem Narayan Paudel	Pratap Lal Shrestha	Rekha Thapa Bashyal
Lumbini	Bhagwat Biswasi	Nirmala Subedi	Som Prasad Pandey	Pitambar Bhusal	Raju Gurung	Brihaspati Adhikari Sarada Swarnakar Hari Prasad Gharti
Karnali	Prakash Jwala	Chandra Bahadur Shahi Sher Bahadur KC Hansa Bahadur Shahi	Amar Bahadur Thapa	Devi Lal Thapa Nanda Sharma Chapai	Thagendra Prasad Puri	Gopal Bahadur Bam Krishna BC
Sudurpaschim	Garima Shah	Devendra Singh Mahat Prem Ale Nira Devi Jairu Ram Kumar Gyawali Parmananda Bhatta	Harka Bahadur Singh	Sher Bahadur Kunwor	Dinesh Chandra Subedi	Dirgha Bahadur Sodari Maya Bhatta
Kathmandu Valley (Special)	Bishwa Nath Pyakurel	Pramod Sharma	Kedar Sanjel		Bishnu Lamsal

Chief ministers

Koshi Province

No.	Chief Minister	Portrait	Terms in Office			Legislature	Cabinet	Constituency
			Start	End	Tenure
1	Rajendra Kumar Rai		2 November 2021	9 January 2023	1 year, 68 days	Koshi Provincial Assembly	Rajendra Kumar Rai cabinet	Bhojpur 1(B)

Bagmati Province

Koshi Province

No.	Chief Minister	Portrait	Terms in Office			Legislature	Cabinet	Constituency
			Start	End	Tenure
1	Rajendra Kumar Rai		27 October 2021	23 December 2022	1 year, 51 days	Bagmati Provincial Assembly	Rajendra Prasad Pandey cabinet	Dhading 1(A)

Electoral performance

General election

Election	Leader	Party list votes		Seats	Position	Resulting government
		No.	%
2022	Madhav Kumar Nepal	298,391	2.83^[a]	10 / 275	7th	Coalition Government

1. Represented as Independent for not reaching the 3% threshold

Provincial election

Province	Election	Party list votes		Seats	Position	Resulting government
		Votes	Percentage
Province No. 1	2022	55,957	2.95	4 / 93	5th	In opposition
Madhesh		113,915	5.46	7 / 107	7th	Confidence & supply
Bagmati		68,101	3.52	7 / 110	4th	In opposition
Gandaki		15,076	1.53	1 / 60	6th	In opposition
Lumbini		42,621	2.26	1 / 87	9th	In opposition
Karnali		35,826	6.20	1 / 40	4th	In opposition
Sudurpaschim		43,819	4.89	5 / 53	5th	In opposition

List of Members of Parliament

Main article: List of members of Federal Parliament

List of Rastriya Sabha members from CPN (Unified Socilaist)

No.	Name	Province	Appointment date	Retirement date
1.	Jayanti Rai	Province No. 1	2022	2028
2.	Beduram Bhusal	Bagmati	2020	2026
3.	Goma Devi Timalsina		2022	2029
4.	Singha Bahadur Bishwakarma		2018	2024
5.	Rajya Laxmi Gaire	Lumbini	2022	2028
6.	Udaya Bohara	Karnali	2022	2028
7.	Nanda Sharma		2018	2024
8.	Madan Kumari Shah	Sudurpashchim	2022	2028

List of Pratinidhi Sabha members from CPN (Unified Socilaist)

No.	Name	Constituency	Portrait	Province	Elected from
1.	Amar Bahadur Thapa	Dailekh 1		Karnali	2022 Nepalese general election
2.	Bhanu Bhakta Joshi	Bajhang 1		Sudurpashchim
3.	Dhan Bahadur Buda	Dolpa 1		Karnali
4.	Krishna Kumar Shrestha	Bara 4		Madhesh
5.	Madhav Kumar Nepal	Rautahat 1		Madhesh
6.	Metmani Chaudhary	Dang 1		Lumbini
7.	Prakash Jwala	Salyan 1		Karnali
8.	Prem Bahadur Ale	Doti 1		Sudurpashchim
9.	Rajendra Prasad Pandey	Dhading 1		Bagmati
10.	Sher Bahadur Kunwor	Achham 1		Sudurpashchim

Sister organizations

Following are the sister organizations of the party:^[52]

• Integrated Centre of Trade Unions, Nepal
  (एकीकृत ट्रेड युनियन महासंघ, नेपाल)
• Youth Federation Nepal
  (युवा संघ नेपाल)
• All Nepal National Free Students Union
  (अखिल नेपाल राष्ट्रिय स्वतन्त्र विद्यार्थी युनियन)
• All Nepal Women's Association (Socialist)
  (अखिल नेपाल महिला सङ्घ (समाजवादी))
• All Nepal Peasants Association
  (अखिल नेपाल किसान महासंघ)
• Progressive Nepal National Teachers Association
  (प्रगतिशील नेपाल राष्ट्रिय शिक्षक संघ)

See also

• List of political parties in Nepal
• Socialist Front
• 2021 split in Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

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External links

• Official website