A controversy has emerged after one faction of the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA-USA) invited Minister for Youth and Sports Bablu Gupta to the United States, while another faction issued a statement saying no such invitation had been extended.
Minister Gupta is preparing to travel to the US on January 17 at the invitation of the NRNA-USA led by Bikash Upreti.
However, the issue became more contentious after a statement was released in the name of another NRNA-USA on Thursday, claiming that there is no program to invite Minister Gupta to the US.
The NRNA-USA that invited Minister Gupta and the NRNA-USA that issued the denial statement are two different bodies.
The statement denying the invitation was issued by the NRNA-USA chaired by Satendra Shah, with Sandesh Upreti serving as its spokesperson.
The invitation to Minister Gupta, on the other hand, came from the NRNA-USA led by Bikash Upreti. Upreti told Setopati that the program is being organized by the youth department of their group.
“This program is being organized by our youth department in Dallas, Texas,” Upreti said. “We are planning a youth conference on the role of youths after the Gen Z movement.”
After the Satendra Shah-led NRNA-USA issued the statement on Thursday, Setopati again sought clarification from Bikash Upreti on whether Minister Gupta had indeed been invited.
“There is a youth minister in the citizen government formed after such a massive movement. Since this is a youth-related program, we deemed it appropriate to invite him. The invitation to him from our side stands,” he said.
NRNA factions formally unified on November 30, 2025. Prior to that, there were two NRNA bodies led by Badri KC and Mahesh Shrestha.
Despite the unification in November, the executive committees of NRNA have not yet been fully merged in all countries .
In the US, one group of NRNA is chaired by Satendra Shah, while the other is chaired by Bikash Upreti.
Upreti represents the Badri KC faction, while Shah represents the Mahesh Shrestha faction of NRNA-USA.
During the unification process of the KC- and Shrestha-led NRNA-USA, it was agreed that both executive committees would be merged to form a steering committee.
As the formation of the steering committee is still underway, both executive committees remain active. As a result, one committee has invited the sports minister while the other has denied inviting him.
