Bidya’s party re-entry and beyond

Her entry has unnerved Oli, who sees her as a threat to his unchallenged leadership.

Former President Bidya Devi Bhandari joining the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) has created ripples in Nepali politics. The occasion she chose to join was the death anniversary of Madan Bhandari, her late husband, who died in a road accident in 1993. The actual reasons for the ‘accident’ are still a mystery, with conspiracy theories circulating since then. The present prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, was the investigation chief to dig out the truth, but in vain. Madan’s short-lived political career had earned him momentary fame for transforming the party into a multiparty democracy— Janatako Bahudaliya Janbad (People’s multiparty democracy) and for raising the party’s status to the second position in Parliament, next to the Nepali Congress (NC).