The Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (JSP-N), one of the coalition partners in Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda-led government, has split after a majority of its lawmakers and over two dozen central committee members applied for a new party at the Election Commission of Nepal.

A faction of the JSP-N led by the party’s federal council chair Ashok Rai registered the application for a new party while the party’s chair Deputy Prime Minister Upendra Yadav, who is also Minister for health and population, is on a trip abroad.

Pradip Yadav, a lawmaker of the JSP-N, said that 29 central committee members and seven lawmakers have jointly applied to form a new party. Of the party’s 12 House of Representatives members, seven — Ashok Rai, Sushila Sherstha, Pradip Yadav, Nawal Kishor Sah, Ranju Kumari Jha, Birendra Mahato and Hasina Khan — have supported the new party named ‘Janata Samajbadi Party’ (without the ‘Nepal’ of the mother party).

The Election Commission on May 6 officially recognised the Ashok Rai-led Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) as a new political party.

Party insiders said that Mr. Rai registered the new party at the advice of Prime Minister Prachanda to counter Mr. Yadav, whose relations with the ruling alliance have soured lately. There are reports Mr. Yadav was trying to ally with the Opposition Nepali Congress and the ruling party alliance CPN-Unified Socialist-led by Madhav Kumar Nepal after NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba reportedly offered the Prime Minister’s post to Mr. Yadav to topple the Prachanda-led government.

However, the ruling coalition consisting of the CPN-UML led by K. P. Sharma Oli and the CPN (Maoist Center) has managed to maintain a narrow majority in the Parliament with the latest political developments.

Leaders of the Ashok Rai-led faction claimed they had to revolt against the party leadership as Mr. Yadav was running the party in an autocratic way. “The chair ran the party unilaterally and disrespected lawmakers,” Mr. Pradip said.

Forest and Environment Minister Nawal Kishor Sah Sudi, who also quit the party, claimed that the need for a new outfit was felt after the chair tried to break the ruling coalition.

“We took this decision for the stability of the incumbent government,” Mr. Sudi said. “The party chair (Mr. Yadav) is against this coalition but we will continue to support this government.” “However, the party establishment’s leaders said the party has not split. Just a dissident faction has parted ways,” they claimed.

The split in the JSP-N will not affect the government’s stability at the moment, said Central Member of CPN-Maoist Centre Sunil Kumar Manandhar, who is also the former Minister for Environment amidst speculations that it might affect the coalition government.

“Unless the CPN-Unified Socialist and JSP-N withdraw support from the government there is no need to seek a vote of confidence by the Prachanda government,” Manandhar added. “Lawmakers alone don’t make a party. A majority of party leaders are with us,” said Manish Suman, the party spokesperson.

He added that less than 20% of the 300-strong central committee had left the party. The split follows a long-standing discontent in the party. Only after the pressure from the other faction, had the establishment side been ready to hold its general convention.

Mohammad Istiyak Rai, a leader of the party, had decided to challenge Mr. Yadav, the party chair, in the upcoming general elections. However, the party split before the convention could be held.

Rajendra Shrestha has been named the federal council chair of the yet-to-be-legalised party, which has announced a 31-member central committee. Rai is the chairperson while Renu Yadav has been named the joint chair. The party has four vice-chairpersons, a general secretary, deputy general secretaries and secretaries, among others.

Though the Rai-led faction has sought recognition as a new party under the Political Party Act, there are no clear legal provisions to guide the party formation process after a split in an existing one.

On August 18, 2021, the then Sher Bahadur Deuba government issued an ordinance to amend the Act to ease the split of two parties — the CPN-UML and the Janata Samajbadi Party.

Revising a provision in the Act, which requires the support of 40% of members in the Parliamentary party and the central committee to split the party, the ordinance lowered the bar to 20% in either of the committees.

On August 26 of the same year, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the UML and Mahantha Thakur of the Janata Samajbadi Party registered new parties, the CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, respectively. Two days later, the ordinance was repealed, having served its purpose.

The provisions amended by the ordinance have become void after it was repealed. Though a bill to reactivate those provisions of the Act has been registered in Parliament, it is yet to be endorsed.

“We have received the application (on new party registration),” said Ram Prasad Bhandari, an election commissioner. “A proper decision will be taken after evaluating the existing legal provisions.” Before the split, in the 275-member federal lower house, the ruling coalition had 154 seats — 16 more than the magic number of 138.

Among them, the CPN-UML has 79 seats (including the Speaker and one suspended lawmaker), the CPN (Maoist Centre) has 32, the Rashtriya Swatantra Party has 21, the JSP-N has 12 seats and the CPN (Unified Socialist) has 10 seats. s

Kathmandu, Nepal:

Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal won a parliamentary vote of confidence on Wednesday, a week after he formed his third coalition in just over a year to head a government which is dominated by the liberal communists.

Mr Dahal, a former Maoist guerrilla leader in the Himalayan nation sandwiched between China and India, formed a coalition cabinet including the Nepali Congress party and other smaller groups last year.

He changed allies this month saying he was not given a free hand.

The new cabinet is dominated by the liberal Nepal Communist Party (UML) and includes several other smaller groups. He had also headed a coalition with the UML briefly after the 2022 elections.

Parliament Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire said Dahal won 157 votes against the 138 required in the 275-member parliament, while 110 lawmakers voted against him.

“I was let down several times … and was forced to form a new coalition cabinet, which is just a regular political process,” Mr Dahal said in parliament on Wednesday, referring to the Nepali Congress, which is now the main opposition party.

Nepali Congress said after the break-up last week that the prime minister had deceived it by dumping it from the cabinet without any notice.

Dahal led a decade-long insurgency from 1996 which caused 17,000 deaths before he joined mainstream politics under the 2006 peace deal overseen by the United Nations.

He is serving a third time as prime minister but did not complete the full five-year term during his previous stints.

Nepal has had 13 governments since it abolished its 239-year-old monarchy in 2008 and became a republic.

Instability has hampered growth of the $40 billion economy and thousands of young Nepalis are heading abroad – mainly to the Middle East, South Korea and Malaysia – for work.

Nepal has extensive social and economic ties with India, a key donor. China is also pouring in aid and investment in infrastructure to woo Kathmandu as an ally.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A file photo of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ won a vote of confidence in Parliament on March 13, as the country struggled to maintain political stability.

Prachanda, 69, a former guerilla leader from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) — the third largest party in the House of Representatives (HoR) — received 157 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives.

The vote comes days after the Maoist leader dumped the Nepali Congress and forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

This is the third time that Prachanda sought a vote of confidence in the House since he assumed prime ministership in December 2022.

According to constitutional provisions, a prime minister has to take a vote of confidence after an ally withdraws support to the ruling coalition.

A file photo of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ won a vote of confidence in Parliament on March 13, as the country struggled to maintain political stability.

Prachanda, 69, a former guerilla leader from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) — the third largest party in the House of Representatives (HoR) — received 157 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives.

The vote comes days after the Maoist leader dumped the Nepali Congress and forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

This is the third time that Prachanda sought a vote of confidence in the House since he assumed prime ministership in December 2022.

According to constitutional provisions, a prime minister has to take a vote of confidence after an ally withdraws support to the ruling coalition.

Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, on October 8, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ten Nepali students have been killed and four others injured in Israel after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a wave of rocket attacks in the country’s southern region, Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said on October 9.

Hamas carried out a barrage of air strikes in Southern Israel on Saturday, killing more than 600 people, including soldiers, and wounding more than 1,900.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in response launched multiple attacks targeting Hamas’ key infrastructure. About 1,000 people have been killed in Israel and Gaza in the biggest escalation in decades between the two sides.

In a press statement, the Foreign Ministry here said 10 Nepali nationals lost their lives in the recent attack by Hamas in Israel.

“Out of the 17 Nepali nationals working on a farm at Kibbutz Alumim, an area near the Gaza Strip, two safely escaped, four were injured and one is still missing,” it said.

“We have received the information of the sad demise of ten Nepali nationals from the site, where the Hamas had launched an attack,” Nepal’s embassy in Jerusalem said in a statement.

All 10 people killed in the Hamas attack were students of agriculture from Sudur Paschim University in Western Nepal, according to Ministry sources.

There are currently 4,500 Nepali nationals working as caregivers in Israel. A total of 265 Nepali students are studying in Israel under the ‘Learn and Earn’ programme of the Israeli government. Of them, 119 are from Agriculture and Forestry University, 97 from Tribhuvan University and 49 from Sudur Paschim University. All of them are bachelor-level students of agriculture.

“We are trying to identify those killed in the incident. Efforts are being made to search for one missing student. The bodies will be brought back to Nepal soon after the identification is completed,” the embassy said.

The Nepal government has also requested the Israeli government that necessary arrangements be provided to the injured people, who are undergoing treatment. The Ministry said it was collaborating with the Israeli government and the embassy in Tel Aviv to bring back those nationals who want to return home.

“Nepal government is committed to evacuate its nationals from the war-torn region at the earliest,” said the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“A meeting of the coordination mechanism formed under the leadership of Foreign Minister N. P. Saud is under way at the Ministry to take stock of the situation in Israel, to identify Nepalese nationals and to make efforts for rescue Nepalese nationals if necessary,” read the statement issued by secretariat of Foreign Minster Saud.

Nepal’s main Opposition CPN-UML has also asked Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to talk to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to rescue the Nepalis, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.

“Issuing statements and informing the House is not enough. The government must play the role of guardian of its citizens at this time of crisis,” said Padam Giri, the UML chief whip, in Parliament.

“The death toll in Israel is expected to rise as a large number of people have been critically wounded,” according to the Israeli military.

Palestinian health officials have said that more than 400 people have been killed, with more than 2,000 injured.

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist militant group which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007. The Gaza Strip is home to about 2.3 million people. It is a 41km-long and 10km-wide territory surrounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.