KATHMANDU, MARCH 22 Although there seemed to be a rift within the Nepali Congress prior to the election, it has started to become apparent after the party's humiliating defeat in the House of Representatives elections on March 5. Following the Gen-Z movement, Gagan Thapa took over the leadership of the Nepali Congress through a special general convention that ousted Sher Bahadur Deuba. However, the elections did not produce the desired outcomes for them. The Thapa-led Nepali Congress not only became the second party in the parliament after being the first in 2022, but the gap between the first and second parties widened significantly after the March 5 election. NC, the largest party in the parliament with 89 legislators in the previous election (both combined first-past-the-post (57) and proportional representation (32) seats in 2022), is now limited to second place with 38 lawmakers from both combined FPTP (19) and proportional representation (19). With 182 (125 FPTP and 57 PR) seats, or nearly two-thirds, the Rastriya Swatantra Party emerged victorious in this election. This election has cost the Congress 50 seats in the HoR. The degree of internal unrest within the Congress is confirmed by the fact that the Deuba-Koirala faction is getting ready to call a separate central committee meeting while the Central Committee meeting is still going on in Sanepa following the election. Furthermore, the Deuba-Koirala faction has claimed that the election has been impacted by the leadership change, even as it analyses the role of President Gagan Thapa in defeating its own party candidate. According to reports, Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma have not been invited by the Koirala-Deuba faction, citing their expulsion as general secretaries. Additionally, the party's sister organisation, the Nepal Student Union, has intensified its calls for functional autonomy, alleging that the NC has long exploited the potential of young students. Under the suggested model, the NSU would retain its ideological ties to the NC while gaining the independence to hold automated elections and, if necessary, serve as a voice of opposition to the party's leadership. 'Autonomy and separation are not the same thing. We want autonomy, not separation. We also want to be our party's opposition,' Spokesperson of the NSU Suraj Sejuwal told THT. In the meantime, the Deuba faction called the resignation of President Thapa and the leaders' stance against the proposal a stunt during the NC meeting that began on Friday. The current leadership of the Congress has already concluded that it lost elections in at least 21 constituencies due to internal party strife. Spokesperson Devraj Chalise asserted that the defeat by a margin of less than five to three thousand votes was primarily due to internal conflict. Chalise stated, 'We are having a thorough discussion about the transfer of our traditional votes in the context of the elections. We are very seriously examining whether this is just a flow of votes or a change of mindset. We conclude that internal elements caused our party to lose by less than 5,000 to 3,000 votes. There are 20/21 constituencies with those seats.' Similarly, NC leader Shyam Ghimire has commented that the party suffered defeat in the elections due to internal infighting and the special general convention. 'Everything that happened in the name of the special general convention has resulted in suffering and its aftereffects. We fought within the party for five months before the election about whether to have a regular general convention or a special one,' Ghimire said. 'The party's general cohesion was disturbed by this altercation. Additionally, the public's reaction to its message was quite negative. It also turned out to be the primary cause of the loss.'