Senior Vice-chairman of the CPN-UML, Ishwar Pokharel, has announced his candidacy for the post of chairman.
Issuing a long statement on Tuesday, Pokharel announced his candidacy for party chair in the upcoming 11th national general convention.
Earlier, Senior Vice-chairman Pokharel had planned to announce his candidacy in the presence of former president Bidya Devi Bhandari. However, putting that process on hold for a few days, he announced his candidacy alone through a press statement.
“I have always placed the nation, the people, and the party above everything else. I have never allowed my integrity and loyalty to waver through the ups and downs of life. This is the moral strength I have earned. I believe not in power, but in process, coordination, collective spirit, and cooperation. Based on the thoughts on party building mentioned above, I have concluded that I will present myself as a candidate for party chair at the 11th national general convention. Accepting the requests and suggestions made by comrades across the country for party reorganization and transformation, I have announced my candidacy for the post of chairman,” he stated in the press release.
Pokharel has been active in the party movement since the days of the coordination center.
He was one of the founding central members when the CPN (Marxist-Leninist) was formed in Diphu village of Morang in 1978. At the time, the party had a 12-member central committee. Pokharel remained continuously in the central committee from the fourth convention of the CPN-ML, through the fifth after unity with the Marxist faction, and onward. In 2008, he was elected general secretary at the 8th general convention held in Butwal.
He was re-elected general secretary in the 9th general convention as well. However, after unification with the CPN (Maoist Center), he was removed from the post of general secretary. After the 10th general convention, he became senior vice-chairman. Pokharel is also regarded as a skilled organizer within the party. He stayed in Janakpur for a long time and played a significant role in expanding the movement in the Tarai-Madhes region.
Pokharel was elected from Kathmandu-3 in 1999. He suffered defeats in Kathmandu-5 in the elections held in 2008 and 2013, but was elected from the same constituency in 2017.
However, he lost the election in 2022 as he was defeated by Nepali Congress candidate Pradip Paudel.
When Manmohan Adhikari, the then UML chairman, became prime minister in 1994, Pokharel served as his chief advisor.
He is preparing to run for chairman in the 11th general convention.
The UML election commission has prohibited panel-based competition and panel announcement before the election. However, the central general convention itself has been violating this rule. Even in the 10th general convention, the establishment faction itself formed a panel and distributed chits defying the commission’s directive.
Senior Vice-chairman Pokharel’s group includes Vice-chairpersons Surendra Pandey, Ashta Laxmi Shakya, Yuvaraj Gyawali, and Secretaries Gokarna Bista, Yogesh Bhattarai, among others.
They are also trying to bring Vice-chairman Bishnu Paudel and Deputy General Secretary Prithvi Subba Gurung into their group. Pokharel is preparing to form a team by including these leaders.
