Kathmandu, December 21
An imminent split in the Bibeksheel Sajha Party has come even closer as the faction led by Rabindra Mishra has decided to remove Milan Pandey from the party.
The Mishra faction commands the majority in the party formed in December 2020 out of the merger of two political groups.
A central committee meeting of the party held on Tuesday decided to remove Pandey even as a member of the party. The meeting has warned him against using the party’s name, stamp and symbol.
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The dispute between the two groups started in July as Mishra proposed abolishing federalism and holding a referendum on secularism to change the course of the country’s politics. That proposal had sparked a new debate in the country.
A few days after that, the dissident faction led by the party’s coordinator Milan Pandey had floated another document against Mishra’s, arguing the anti-federalism proposal was regressive.
But, the party’s meeting on October 28 endorsed Mishra’s document. It also decided that the party chairperson Mishra would have major executive powers in the party affairs. Before this, both Mishra and Pandey had enjoyed equal rights.
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The Bibeksheel Sajha Party was formed out of the merger between the then Bibeksheel Nepali and Sajha Party in the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections. However, they had split in early January 2019 to re-merge again in December 2020.
