Three is not a crowd

Ghising’s abrupt depature from the RSP is not a healthy development for Nepali politics.

Kathmandu Mayor and current Rastriya Swatantra Party member Balendra Shah is said to have this dream of uniting all the ‘alternative’ political forces in the country and then leading the new collective. This, he believed, was important in order to mount a strong fight against traditional parties like the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML in the upcoming elections. And once such a force got people’s mandate to take the country on the path of clean and effective governance in line with the spirit of the September Gen Z movement. Yet this mission of Shah took a big hit when the Ujjyalo Nepal Party (UNP), which had merged with the RSP, pulled out of the merger just 12 days after their unification. Under the collective leadership of Shah, Rabi Lamichhane and UNP Chair Kulman Ghising, the revamped RSP appeared to be a potent electoral force, with the three leaders between them having a pan-Nepal appeal. Yet Ghising and the UNP had to pull out, apparently because of differences over Ghising’s position in the new party, the RSP’s pick of Proportional Representation candidates and the RSP leadership’s reservations over UNP agendas like federalism and inclusion.