Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Senior Vice-chairman Rabindra Mishra and General Secretary Dhawal Shamsher Rana were as active while forming the joint Janaandolan (People's Movement) Committee led by 86-year-old Nava Raj Subedi for restoration of the monarchy as party Chairman Rajendra Lingden and his close associates were indifferent.
At the announcement of the committee in a restaurant in Dilli Bazar, Senior Vice-chairman Mishra, General Secretary Rana, former chairmen Pashupati Shamsher Rana and Prakash Chandra Lohani, and a few other leaders were present. However, those close to Chairman Lingden did not attend.
The committee was declared on Monday without even consulting RPP Chairman Lingden beforehand.
Former king Gyanendra Shah had called for support on the eve of Democracy Day. Even for that call, he had not discussed with RPP Chairman Lingden who has long been lobbying for inevitability and necessity of the monarchy. After February 19 the former king had not even met Lingden.
Former king Gyanendra instead is seen to be close with Senior Vice-chairman Mishra and General Secretary Rana in recent days. It was Mishra and Rana who had been strongly advocating within the RPP for some time that the party should fully commit to the movement for restoration of the monarchy.
Immediately after the former king's call on February 19, RPP General Secretary Dhawal Shamsher Rana welcomed it and issued a statement without consulting his party or awaiting its decision.
In the statement, Rana said: "On the eve of Democracy Day, king Gyanendra has called on all Nepalis to support him in saving the nation, maintaining national unity, and ensuring the country's prosperity and progress. I welcome the positive statement from king Gyanendra expressing serious concern about the current state of the country and calling for new thinking and activism. In this context, I urge all nationalist, democratic, and patriotic Nepali people to unite and move forward in a movement to end the dire situation in the country and keep it free from crisis."
General Secretary Rana is also the coordinator of the RPP's movement mobilization committee. The party leadership was not pleased with him for welcoming the former king's call and urging people to unite for a movement before any party discussion.
Subsequently, under General Secretary Rana's leadership, massive motorcycle rallies were organized in Dhangadhi, Nepalgunj, Simara, and Kathmandu, centered around the former king's call.
After a long stay in Pokhara, former king Gyanendra was returning to Kathmandu on March 9. Following his Democracy Day call for support, medical entrepreneur Durga Prasai and others organized a program to welcome him on his first return to Kathmandu.
General Secretary Rana proposed within the RPP that the party should also support this event. On March 9, the RPP had a public gathering scheduled in Kathmandu. When Rana, during an office-bearers’ meeting, argued that the party should endorse and participate in welcoming the former king, it put RPP leadership under pressure. Subsequently, the public gathering was postponed, and a decision was made to call for participation in welcoming the former king. Chairman Lingden and other RPP leaders even went to the main gate of Tribhuvan International Airport to welcome him.
There has long been a kind of friction between General Secretary Rana and Chairman Lingden. As Rana grows closer to the former king, this friction appears to have intensified.
Last October, Chairman Lingden removed Rana from the responsibility of heading the organization department without prior notice. Lingden had appointed Rana to that role on June 7, 2022. While Rana was in India for medical treatment, he was removed from the position, which was then handed over to Vicechairman Buddhiman Tamang, a close ally of Lingden.
Upon returning to Nepal after treatment, Rana protested this decision at a party meeting.
"It was neither humane, politically fair, nor legally justified to abruptly remove me, General Secretary Dhawal Shamsher Rana, from the position of head of the organization department. This sets a precedent of narrow-mindedness where one cannot even fall ill or be hospitalized without facing punishment," he said at the central committee meeting. "In the RPP, not just the general secretary, but the chairman, other office-bearers, and central committee members will routinely lose their positions as soon as they fall ill."
At the central committee meeting last January, Rana challenged Chairman Lingden by presenting a separate political report.
In that report, Rana accused Lingden of lacking fresh vitality and sincere efforts needed to keep the party united as per the spirit of the unity convention, alleging slackness in implementing the convention's mandate, the party's declared policies, and goals.
From the beginning, General Secretary Rana has consistently questioned Chairman Lingden's working style. He raised concerns about where Lingden's public commitment—to unite like-minded parties, groups, institutions, and individuals within six months of the convention to achieve goals like the monarchy and a Hindu kingdom—stands now.
Rana also criticized Lingden's leadership for joining Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s government, arguing that instead of being people-centric, the party became power-centric, causing damage. This report created ripples at the central committee meeting held from January 25 to 27.
"A bull doesn’t give milk; giving milk isn’t a bull’s duty. We said the RPP is an alternative to Nepali Congress and communists, yet electoral alliances were formed with CPN-UML in three places. We claimed Nepali Congress and communists are two sides of the same coin and that the RPP is the alternative, but this political alternative and the RPP’s rise as a central force didn’t materialize in practice. The reason why the RPP couldn’t become a 'new' alternative must be sought within the party itself," Rana’s report stressed.
After Rana submitted this critical report to the central committee, dissent and resentment became personal. At this juncture, Senior Vice-chairman Mishra began supporting Rana. Mishra, too, had opposed the party joining the government from the start.
Former king Gyanendra was displeased when RPP, under Lingden’s leadership, joined the Dahal-led government, with Lingden becoming deputy prime minister and energy minister. To send a message to RPP and Lingden, the former king even participated in Durga Prasai’s program.
At that time, Senior Vice-chairman Mishra had also argued against the party joining the government. "Until the day before, there was no talk of joining the Dahal-led government; we weren’t going to join. But the next day, without informing us, they joined. Who knows what happens in parties," Mishra had said to his close associates then.
This incident widened the gap between Lingden and the former king while bringing Mishra and Rana closer to him—a trend that continues to this day.
After the former king’s displeasure, Lingden and other RPP leaders met him at the Himalaya Tea Garden in Damak. Only then was a sort of reconciliation reached between the former king and the RPP.
A leader close to Lingden criticized General Secretary Rana, alleging he has a tendency to disregard party leadership and act unilaterally without consultation.
"General Secretary Rana doesn’t really discuss things with Chairman Lingden. He has a habit of making unilateral decisions even without authority," an RPP office-bearer told Setopati. "Rana nominated General Secretary Kunti Shahi as the member-secretary of the movement mobilization committee, which is against the party statute. The statute allows only the chairman to make such appointments."
The office-bearer also accused Rana of planning various movement programs without party discussion or decisions, a behavior that has increasingly irritated Chairman Lingden.
The RPP, which claimed that welcome of former king Gyanendra was successfully completed, has been discussing this further at the central working committee meeting that began last Sunday. The committee meeting continues on Tuesday, where discussions will also cover the committee formed under Nava Raj Subedi’s leadership.
Chairman Lingden has already stated he will not join the committee led by Subedi. Additionally, an office-bearer said the relevance of the movement committee formed under General Secretary Rana’s leadership, after the creation of Subedi’s committee, will also be discussed.
"The movement committee under General Secretary Rana’s leadership has undermined the party’s supremacy and procedures. Members were appointed to Subedi’s committee without informing Chairman Lingden. It appears Senior Vice-chairman Mishra drafted and formed that committee," the office-bearer said. "This trend doesn’t strengthen a political party, so what’s the point of Rana’s movement committee now?"
The office-bearer claimed that General Secretary Rana has acted as a permanent opposition-like figure under both Kamal Thapa and Lingden’s leadership.
"Under Kamal Thapa’s leadership, Rana criticized and obstructed work. He’s repeating the same pattern with Lingden now. Mishra, who tirelessly talks about procedure externally, is again supporting Rana," he said.
The formation of the monarchy restoration committee under Subedi’s leadership by Mishra and Rana—without even informing Chairman Lingden, lawmaker and Spokesperson Gyanendra Shahi, and others who advocate for the monarchy—has fueled growing discontent within the RPP.
General Secretary Rana acknowledged that some dissatisfaction has surfaced after formation of Subedi’s committee and said efforts are underway to resolve it.
When asked about appointing committee members without consulting Chairman Lingden, Rana told Setopati, "We are sorting everything out. By tomorrow, it will all be resolved, and then we can talk. There’s some dissatisfaction, and we’re addressing it."
