The RSP paradox

A political outfit founded on the popularity of an individual rather than an ideology is destined to fail.

That Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s arrogance of the “magic number of 32” would backfire was a given. With the two big parties of Parliament, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, coming together to form a government, Dahal has been consigned to the periphery of Nepali politics—at least for now. There is another party that has been pushed to the corner as a result of the Congress-UML midnight matchmaking: the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). Not only had the RSP taken the country by storm after clinching 21 seats in its electoral debut, but it had also quickly learnt to play the sidekick in the coalition politics where a party that came a distant third, Dahal’s Maoist Centre, took the lead role.