RPP-Nepal Chairman Kamal Thapa has said that unification with RPP can happen only if the latter renounce the agenda of monarchy.
“I will unify the party and even hand over leadership if the party led by Rajendra Lingden gives up the agenda of restoration of monarchy,” Thapa said addressing a press conference in Butwal on Thursday.
Pointing that the party will fail if it pushes the impossible agenda of monarchy he has urged RPP to pursue the right kinds of agendas. He has also reiterated the demand for plebiscite on secularism claiming that the majority of the people are still in favor of Hindu state.
He has claimed that religious conversion is spreading like wildfire in the country and warned of extinction of Hindu, Muslim and Kirat religions in the country if other political parties do not pay attention toward that.
He has added that RPP is for directly elected prime minister and directly elected president in the federal structure, and fully proportional representation electoral system for the parliament instead of the mixed electoral system pointing that the first past the post electoral system has promoted corruption.
Thapa, who had lost the election for RPP chair to Rajendra Lingden in the last general convention, had quit RPP in February accusing former king Gyanendra of getting him defeated to Lingden in the general convention after his unexpected loss. He even issued a statement on December 7, 2021 and accused Gyanendra of trying to finish him politically to turn the party into a band of lackeys and warned that Gyanendra may continue such intervention even in other parties if the monarchy were revived.
He had claimed that the intervention of Nirmal Niwas, (Gyanendra's residence) in the party's general convention to get Rajendra Lingden elected party chair instead of him is not the first one and accused it of playing a role in splitting the party nearly five years ago.
"This is not the first instance of intervention by Nirmal Niwas. It is well known that Nirmal Niwas has played a role in splitting the party in 2017, and been repeatedly involved in recent times in character assassination of the leadership by forming a band of lackeys and spreading falsehoods about RPP," Thapa had stated.
He had added that there will now be debate in RPP about monarchy and the plan of Nirmal Niwas to run the party through a remote control.
He had taken to Twitter immediately after losing to Lingden on December 5 to condemn what he called naked intervention of the Nirmal Niwas in the general convention. "I have been relieved and liberated. I have been rewarded today for walking around wearing a shroud on the head (taking mortal risks) carrying the institution of monarchy since 2006 when the whole country turned republican," Thapa tweeted tagging a handle of Gyanendra that has not been officially verified. "May the king be blessed for the endeavor to politically finish the main propagator of that agenda."
He then claimed in the statement two days later that his reaction was not made in the heat of the moment after his loss. "I humbly request to not take this expression as my rage after losing election. Victory or loss does not have any meaning for me as I am a sportsperson. The culture of happily accepting defeat and remain ready again for another competition is in my blood."
He had elaborated that the party and he believe that the institution of monarchy should remain as a symbol of national unity above petty politics considering geopolitics, and religious, social and cultural context, and claimed that Gyanendra can continue his blatant intervention seen now in a party of monarchists even in other parties and national politics.
"If the king blatantly and dirtily intervenes in a party with 100 percent monarchists, this has finished moral ground for us to rule out the king's intervention even in other parties and national politics if monarchy is reinstated tomorrow. How can we say that the king will not intervene in democracy and democratic institutions as in the past?"
