KATHMANDU, April 1: Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’ was elected unopposed as the parliamentary party leader of CPN-UML.
Leader Yogesh Bhattarai expressed objection, claiming that the competitor was denied both proposer and supporter positions, and the leadership was decided under pressure.
In Wednesday’s parliamentary party leadership election, Thapa became the sole candidate after youth MP Suhang Nembang, who had also claimed the leadership, failed to secure a proposer and supporter at the final nomination stage.
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Reacting to this process, Bhattarai expressed his outrage on social media on Wednesday. He argued that MPs should have been allowed time to reach a high-level understanding with party leadership, but instead they were pressured to make the decision.
He said that the election has dealt a serious blow to the party, triggered widespread public criticism of the leadership, and occurred while the party chairman himself is under arrest. Bhattarai noted that the style of the election in such adverse conditions has further worried the party ranks.
“In the current situation, facing multidimensional challenges, it is time to build strong unity and restore public trust through broad restructuring,” he wrote. “But the way the parliamentary party leader was chosen today—pressuring MPs instead of reaching an understanding—was not right.”
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