Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Genral Secretary Mukul Dhakal has proposed that the party should move forward with independent elected people’s representatives like Balen Shah, Gopal Hamal and others on returning after interacting with party leaders and cadres in 39 districts.
Dhakal has made the proposal through the report of what he called review campaign that he submitted to RSP President Rabi Lamichhane on Wednesday.
Dhakal had also made that proposal a year ago through a political document titled ‘Promise for the New Age’, according to a party leader, but the proposal was rejected by the central committee.
Dhakal’s document back then had concluded that national building was possible only through integrated organizational and collective efforts, and not through individual efforts. He had pointed that rise of independent elected people’s representatives in the last local election and the historical trust earned by RSP in the subsequent general election was proof of the people’s ire toward the malpractices of established political parties and hope toward new powers for change.
But the central committee did not embrace Dhakal’s proposal and instead deployed central members and leaders to different districts in all seven provinces to move the political document forward in a new manner. The party also made deliberations for policies but the act of completing the document through that has not been completed yet, according to another RSP leader.
The party had sent Dhakal to the districts after its candidate Milan Limbu failed to even save his guarantee in the recent by-election in Ilam-2.
Dhakal has again concluded that the party should move forward together with Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Balen Shah, and Mayor of Dhangadi Sub-metropolitan City Gopal Hamal after interacting with party leaders and cadres in 39 districts. His report, however, is silent about Harka Sampang who was also elected as Mayor of Dharan Sub-metropolitan City as an independent candidate.
Dhakal has stressed that the party should take initiative for cooperation with Shah, Hamal and others before the next general election.
Dhakal has claimed in his latest report that the majority of those participating in the review meeting were for cooperation with Shah. “We are in regular contact with Shah’s team but he is not in politics now in his own words. He is chief of a local body which, he thinks, is a non-political job,” Dhakal’s report adds.
Dhakal has stated that the people are waiting to see whether Shah joins politics or not, and whether he forms a new party if he decides to join.
His report states that Shah may stand firm on his position that the local level should be partyless and he may even expand his campaign by forging a separate team of independent candidates in the next local election. He estimates that Shah may form his own party only in 2032.
Central leaders of RSP do not seem positive about Dhakal’s proposal for cooperation with Shah even now. But the central committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday will discuss the general secretary’s report.
Dhakal has been stressing that not just the party leaders and cadres but the 1.3 million voters who voted for the party in the proportional representation electoral system should get to read his latest report.
