Nepal’s three major political parties—Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center)—are currently focused on the task of bolstering their organizational strength. Revival of dormant party organizations and increasing party members have become their priority. To this end, they have come up with their own version of a grassroots campaign. Central-level leaders have been mobilized to various districts to interact with local cadres as well as voters.
These outreach drives of these three parties did not spur from the wisdom of their central leadership. They are rather a result of a clarion call from their ranks and files, who have witnessed their political bases erode almost overnight with the emergence of new political forces, particularly the Rastirya Swatantra Party.
The UML was the first party to reach out to the grassroots soon after the results of last year’s general election were out. According to media reports, the size of UML membership has decreased by nearly 50 percent in recent years, but the party leadership denies this. Leaders say that there was “an artificial increase” in the number of party members during the short-lived merger between the UML and the Maoist Center.
They claim that the UML’s core members remain intact.
The UML leadership has announced to increase the number of its members to one million by the next party convention.
According to Kashi Nath Adhikari, head of the party’s organizational department, along with the membership renewal, scores of new members have joined the UML. Since last year’s election, in which the party retained its third position, the UML is continuously focusing on building the party base, with central leaders reaching to the local level for cadre training and organization strengthening purposes.
Besides Adhikari’s words, the UML has not presented any metrics to accurately determine whether the party’s grassroots campaign was a success or a failure.
The Nepali Congress, which emerged as the largest party in last year’s elections, has also launched a nationwide campaign. In order to win the hearts and minds of people, the NC has adopted a two-pronged strategy of resolving the internal issues of the party and addressing the concerns of common people. The party leadership has instructed its central leaders to form a “service force” at each local level to address the problems faced by the people. By setting up these service forces, the NC hopes to attract youths to the party.
The NC leadership came up with such a plan amid complaints that the leaders and cadres at the local level have not been paying attention to the problems faced by common people. It was also largely prompted by the initiatives launched by the RSP to facilitate public access to various services including government-related works.
NC leader Nain Singh Mahar says the main challenge as well as priority of the party right now is to reconnect with the common people. He admits that the party for long has been focused on political issues, barely paying attention to the plights of ordinary people.
The CPN (Maoist Center) has also announced a special grassroots campaign through its recently concluded central committee meeting to revive the party.
The Maoists support base and organizational strength pale in comparison to the NC and UML. So the party chairman and prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has directed the party leaders to reach out to every household across the country to connect with the people. Dahal himself has announced that he would be traveling to every ward of all seven provinces to rally support for the party.
After completion of the campaign, the party plans to organize a policy convention probably in November to shape the party’s ideology.
Despite being in power, the Maoist party is progressively becoming weaker since 2013. In order to strengthen the party, Dahal is even planning to unite with other fringe communist forces and Maoist splinter groups.
Political observers say campaigns launched by the three major parties to connect with the masses are a direct outcome of the RSP’s meteoric rise.
The RSP’s popularity is undeniable and the three major parties feel threatened. If this groundswell of support for the RSP continues to sustain until the next election season, the party could very well sweep the polls.
At the moment, the three major parties are in no position of contesting the election alone.
Agni Prasad Sapkota, Maoist Spokesperson: We will be launching a three-month campaign to revive the party organization which is a final test of our party. I am fully optimistic that we will pass this test because it is a matter of all party leaders and cadres. We will reach every ward across the country to re-energize our party structures. We will launch the program from September 10.
Madhu Acharya, NC leader: I think our Central Working Committee did not take sufficient measures to reform party organization and shape ideology, policy and program. Instead of fixing the date of the policy convention, the party leadership decided to hold the Mahasamiti meeting, and we are making preparations accordingly. We will reach out to the people as per the decision of the party leadership.
Deepak Prakash Bhatta, UML leader: After the general elections, we diagnosed the organizational problems within the party. The UML party organization was in a mess after the unification with the Maoists in 2018. We have identified the problems now and are in the process of resolving them. We are also planning to hold the district- and provincial-level conventions. The party has also appointed the in-charge in each of the seven provinces for organizational rebuilding.
