KATHMANDU, Nov 21: There are a few instances around the world where heads of state or their deputies return to active politics after serving their tenure. Nepal appears poised to join this rare group, with former President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun both signaling a potential return to active political roles.
While the former President Bhandari has made it no longer a secret that she intends to return to active politics, her deputy Pun is also mulling to return to active politics after distancing himself from active politics since 2015. Leaders within the CPN (Maoist Center) said former Vice President Pun, who served as deputy commander of the Maoist’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the decade-long civil war from 1996 to 2006, is returning to active politics as per the wish of Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Pun is considered one of the close confidantes of Chairman Dahal, who was the commander of the PLA during the civil war. As Chairman Dahal faces mounting pressure to handover the party leadership, he is looking for more leaders loyal to him in the party’s office bearers’ position. Chairman Dahal has reportedly offered Pun the position of vice chairman of the party.
Deputy general secretaries Janardan Sharma and Haribol Gajurel have lately been vocal in raising the issue of leadership handover within the party. While Gajurel raised this issue during a recent office bearers’ meeting, Sharma put forth the same proposal in the party’s Standing Committee meeting.
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Both Sharma and Gajurel have proposed Dahal to stay as the patron and handover the party’s leadership to second-rung or the third-rung leaders—something Dahal is not yet ready for. They have argued that the leadership handover is critical to keep the party competitive in the context that politics is overwhelmingly drawn by youth leaders like Rabi Lamichhane and Balen Shah.
As more leaders of the party are lending their support to the leadership handover proposal, Chairman Dahal, who feels his leadership position gradually threatened, wants Pun to return to active politics to bolster his hold in the coveted position of the party chairman, according to the party insiders. What makes it easy for Dahal to bring Pun back to active politics is that he is among a few highly respected leaders within the party, given his contribution to drive their decade-long 'people's war'.
The Maoist Center has 21-member office bearers’ body including one senior vice chairman, three vice chairmen, one general secretary and four deputy general secretaries and secretaries each. Although he enjoys support of the overwhelming majority of leaders within the office bearers’ body, Chairman Dahal feels his leadership position increasingly threatened as the number of second-rung and third-rung leaders throwing their weight behind the leadership handover proposal to maintain the party’s appeal among young voters.
Sources close to Pun, however, claimed that Pun has not made up his mind yet to join active politics. He is currently in a dilemma whether to opt for the position of president if such opportunity arises in the future or immediately return to active politics. “Nothing can be said on this issue for now. He has not taken any decision yet to this effect,” said Manoj Gharti Magar, a member of Pun’s Personal Secretariat.
Former Vice President Pun’s potential return to active politics coincides with the full-fledged preparations by former President Bhandari to return to politics representing CPN-UML. While UML Chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has indicated his intention to run for chairmanship again in the upcoming general convention, Bhandari is set to throw him a challenge in the upcoming general convention.
Bhandari, who carries the legacy of one of the party’s influential leaders, the late Madan Bhandari, who propounded the idea of ‘People’s Multiparty Democracy’, has renewed her UML membership and stepped up meetings with second-rung UML leaders. The two-time president (2015 to 2023), Bhandari, had resigned from her UML affiliation when she was first elected as the head of state.
The UML is expected to hold its general convention in the next two years. Chairman Oli, who helped elect Bhandari as the president for two consecutive terms, has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with her return to active party politics, viewing her as a potential rival.
Several senior UML leaders, many disillusioned with Chairman Oli’s leadership, are reportedly in discussions with former President Bhandari to facilitate her return to active politics. Sources claimed that Bhandari has been regularly holding meetings with leaders of other leftist parties, including CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. UML insiders suggest that Bhandari has an ambition to uniting Nepal’s leftist parties including the Maoist Center and Unified Socialist under a single flag.
