KATHMANDU, Oct 2: Nepal’s oldest democratic party, the Nepali Congress (NC), has effectively split into three factions as rival groups have begun separate conventions while claiming the same party flag and election symbol.
The party, whose organizational formation began with BP Koirala’s public call on October 4, 1946, has entered its eighth decade divided into three camps.
The faction led by NC establishment President Gagan Kumar Thapa, which came to power through a special general convention, is beginning preparations for the party’s 15th General Convention starting Sunday. Meanwhile, the faction led by outgoing President Sher Bahadur Deuba, which has rejected the special convention and challenged the Thapa-led central committee at the Supreme Court, began its ward-level convention on Thursday.
The Deuba faction has also informed the Election Commission that it has begun the ward convention process under the party’s 15th General Convention. The commission, however, had already recognized the Thapa-led central committee as legitimate.
NC meeting: Let's end factions and sub-factions in party
While the Thapa and Deuba factions are preparing for their respective conventions, Shekhar Koirala and leaders close to him have stayed out of both. They say they support broader unity within the party and will not participate in either convention. However, many leaders and cadres previously considered close to Koirala have now split between the Thapa-led establishment faction and the Deuba-led opposition faction.
Although leaders from all sides claim to remain united under the party’s four-star flag and tree symbol, the separate convention processes have made the party’s three-way division increasingly apparent. Leaders from the opposition faction did not participate in the ward convention launched by the establishment faction on September 19. With the opposition faction beginning its own ward convention on Thursday, the party has become practically divided. It will not be formally split until the Supreme Court resolves the dispute over its official status.
The NC was formed through the merger of the Nepali Prajatantra Congress and Nepali Rastriya Congress, which had emerged during the struggle against the Rana regime. The presidents of the two parties issued a joint statement on March 27, 1950, calling for their unification, followed by a conference in Kolkata on April 9 that formally established the NC.
The party later led movements that ended 104 years of Rana rule and, eventually, the 240-year-old monarchy. It also played a leading role in Nepal’s transition to a federal democratic republic.
The NC, which lost power and influence following the Gen Z uprising in September 2025, has now reached October amid an internal feud and division. This is not the first time the party has split. It was previously divided in 1953 and again in 2002.
The first split followed a dispute between Matrika Prasad Koirala and BP Koirala over the government after democracy was established in 1951. The second came in 2002 over whether to extend the state of emergency imposed during the Maoist insurgency.
After the NC central working committee decided against extending the emergency, then-Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba extended it through the Cabinet. He was subsequently subjected to disciplinary action for acting against the party decision and later formed the Nepali Congress Prajatantrik. The two factions merged in 2007.
The roots of Nepal’s democratic movement, however, predate the NC. In 1936, the Nepal Praja Parishad was established under Tanka Prasad Acharya to campaign against Rana rule.
The Nepali Prajatantra Congress held its convention in Kolkata’s Bhawanipur on January 25-26, 1947, while the Nepali Rastriya Congress held its first anniversary in Kashi in 1948 under the chairmanship of Devi Prasad Sapkota. The event selected Dilliram Regmi as its president for one year. The two parties later merged to form the NC in 1950.
