Premal Kumar Khanal
Representatives of the Interim Government formed by Sushila Karki after the last protests of the youth of GenZ.The elections took place on 21 May. Apart from a few minor incidents in the polls, the House of Representatives election – 2026 was held peacefully.These elections provided the basis for defending the constitution, forming a new parliament and creating a new government.
The elections were contested by the Left Party CPN UML, Nepali Communist Party – NCP, Nepali Congress, National Democracy Party-RPP, Regionalist Medesh party and National Independent Party ( RSP )as well as independent candidates.The election was won by almost two-thirds of the candidates in numbers and direct proportionality by RSP.
In the elections, left-wing political parties such as UML and Nepali Communist Party have been reduced to a smaller size.Similarly, 1991 was not seen in the parliament as a result of non-attendance by the regionalist centrist parties who were unable to attend, while Labour culture party, which has become a new force, appeared in Parliament.
In the elections, Nepali Communist Party secured total proportional votes of 8,10,100, while RSP won 510,0830, Nepali Congress 175,9000, UML 145,5000, Labour Culture Party 385,000 and RPP 330,00.
Among such smaller left parties, the progressive Democratic Party of Janardan Sharma has received only 24,648 votes, the Maoist Party of Biplab Group 23,852, Janamorcha 20,448, and the Nepal Labor Farmers Party 42,461, NCP( ML) 6,163, and the Nepal Communist Party Joint of Ghanashyam Bhushal 4,510.
The Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) has won eight constituencies, while it is represented by a proportionate majority, including 9 from the same number of seats, making it the fourth party in Parliament with 17 members.
In this election, the Nepali Communist Party had a total proportional vote of 8.1 percent, which was lower by 6,62,228 votes to its previous record, while it finished third in 25 constituencies, fourth in 62 constituencies, and only received less than 10 percent of the votes cast by candidates from 99 constituencies.
Similarly, UML has been ranked as the third party in parliament by winning 8 constituencies and 25 seats respectively from 17 constituencies, while UML was ranked as the fourth in 42 constituencies to win 61 seats.
People have shown their faith in the past elections as a result of the role played by left wing parties in democratic movement and republican movement.UML was won 69 seats in parliament in the general election in 1991 while its main opposition party won 9 seats, Nepalese Workers’ Party won 2 seats.Similarly, the largest party in the Parliament, which had 88 seats in the 1991 elections, was led by the government for the first time in 4 seats.
In 1999 UML won 71 seats, while Janmorcha won 5 seats, Nepal Labor Peasant Party won 1 seat and the United People’s front won 1seat.
In the elections for the Constituent Assembly in 2007, after the arrival of the Republic, NCP Maoist alone won 229 seats, UML108 seats, NCP ML and Nepali Workers’ Party won 5/5 seats, National people’s front won 4 seats, NCP unified won 1 seat and Joint Morcha 8 seats.In the election of 2017, the Maoists had won about two thirds of the constituency by a left coalition of UML including 36 and Maoist who won 116 seats.
In the past, the people did provide the Left with an opportunity to lead a government by giving it a majority.But in this election, the left hold constituency was broken down in some constituencies maintained by the left.UML President KP Oli won 1991 from Jhappa and he lost his national independence party candidate Balendra Shah by 49,641 votes in this election.
Whereas in the 2023 elections KP Oli had defeated a Nepali Congress candidate by a margin of 32,247 votes which was far lower than that obtained in 2069, but this time he won only slightly less votes than his predecessor Bhaktapur 1 who was considered as the stronghold for the year 1991, lost by 5829 votes compared to the National Independent Party- RSP candidate.
Similarly, in the past, many left-wing candidates have been defeated by National Independent Party candidates several times.What this has shown is that the Left vote will not be static forever if it fails to gain popular support.And this leads to widespread interest in Nepal as a state like the Left Movement of India and West Bengal.
In the 1958 general elections only four candidates of Nepal Communist Party had won, since then in the Parliamentary elections in 1991, when the people first won by enthusiastically voting for the left as a major opposition party.The Left has been victorious in the elections especially after its struggle over nationality issues with feelings of nationalism and patrioticism, its movement for people’s livelihood and its leadership in country to restore democracy and achieve an inclusive democracy.
In the 1994 elections, UML became a big party in parliament and was first elected by an officer led by the Communist Party’s elected government.They started with the government for at least 9 months to honor senior citizens, made their own villages under the budget of Singhdurbar education from integrated approach as well as accessibility, health, irrigation, roads, agriculture, sanitation, clean drinking water, basic ship training, public toilets, water supply, rural development and household development programmes were all moved forward.In fact, these socio-economic programs were advanced.Through this period India had unequal agreements on economic reforms, strengthening the country’s peace, security, and governance according to its values, it was run by the popular government.
Before 2054, the governments led by the left were mainly focused on constitution building and peace process management.But after the constitution was created, the left went into government and socialist economic policies and programs had to be implemented in accordance with the needs of the nation and its people, notably education, health, clean eating water, housing, civil security, as well as agricultural development and industrialization through ending corruption and irregularities.The left has been working since 1991 adopting a Neo-liberal economic policy.In 2010 a single majority government was formed.However, it did not survive even after the internal problems inside the party and the parliament were dissolved twice.
Thus, the people’s aggression was increasing after not being able to do anything significant on the side of the nation and the people.The previous 2023 elections were held by the National Independent Party with its original slogan that political parties could not work, irregularities and corruption had increased.In those elections, the RSP received almost 11 lakh votes in parliament, while at the local level elections in 2022 they were won by the independent candidates from Kathmandu, Dhanagadi and Dharan municipality and Leftists as well as alternatives.This is why in the last election the leftist political parties were given a counter but the leftists did not learn from this lesson.
The younger generation was disappointed and even more upset than when they came out on the streets, because of their independent identity in politics, they worked to unite from modern technology’s social networks. And this is what happened last year, the movement of young people.
And the election of this year as a new party, which was replaced by the old party in the National Independent Party- RSP led to a situation whereby the left would have to bear the consequences of election.The same thing happened when the left quickly contested the elections.If they had coordinated between progressive and left forces at the national state or provincial level, almost 60 electoral areas, the left wing would have won more seats in each election.But the left wing did not want to colliation with each other.
Now the left movement must learn a serious lesson from the this elections.The defeat that active Leftists had to suffer in the this elections with the goal of bringing about a socialist revolution in Nepal was due to their own reasons.Particularly, they could not go to government and implement social economic programs for public education ,health,housing,clean water, food,social security.Although the last Pushpa kamal Dahal led government has been against irregularities and various corruption scandals,they have played a role in protecting the nation’s interest by agreeing on the Communist model of National Interest Treaty.On the contrary,the conditions laid down by the MCC projects, including those brought under Nepal’s national sovereignty,BRI financial agreements,and infrastructure development etc.
The left still in a divided state will continue to fight it out, the socialist revolution in Nepal will only be an illusion of the future.The ideals of the left are the same, but if they keep dividing the left public opinion, this will benefit bourgeois capitalists .This will push back the Socialist Revolution in Nepal by decades.
So at this point, the left needs to come together and take a serious and ruthless self-examination of past deficiencies.This will first require a restructuring within the smaller Left parties that rely on principles, ideals, programs, organization, leadership transformation and transfer, revolutionary workstyle and servatised lifestyles.And so there is no alternative to being left as one and be polarized by creating a new Party unity campaign based on the idea that the left has been updated and should be able to get elected in front of local and state legislatures at least not later.
At the same time, in view of the geopolitical complexity and challenges, Nepal needs to play its role in protecting and promoting national security and nationhood, maintaining good governance in the country, and making sure that the left cooperates with the people.
The writer is the leader of Nepali communist Party of Nepal – NCP
