A legal battle looms over the ownership of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) as the party’s dissidents, led by home minister Kamal Thapa and the recently expelled vice chairman Padma Sundar Lawoti, have chosen the former as the new president (a change in the name of title) after ‘removing’ Pashupati Shumsher Rana from the perch of chairmanship at their two-day ‘special general convention’. In a prompt move aimed at foiling the bid of the dissidents to capture the parent party, Rana filed a writ petition yesterday at the Patan appellate court seeking a prohibitory order. The dissidents have claimed that the party is intact, except the removal of the cha-irman, and that they therefore need not do anything else except to inform the Election Commission of the change of leadership, as required under the law.

The Thapa-led RPP has adopted a ‘strong royalist and nationalist line’, in addition to recognising an ‘effective monarchy’ as a necessity for the resolution of the present national crisis. Needless to say, its two-day ‘convention’ backed the February 1 royal takeover, describing it as a ‘fully democratic step’ and deciding to take part in the February 8 civic polls. The dissidents rooted for a clear stance on the royal takeover and participation in the municipal polls, while the Rana faction wanted to sound somewhat democratic by favouring a stance linking participation to the creation of a ‘conducive’ atmosphere in which all parties could contest the elections. The recent central committee decision was neither one thing or the other.

The Thapa-led RPP has hinted at inducting hardline royalists into the party by calling on them to come under its banner and saying that it would be a forum for all ‘royalists and nationalists’. That is not surprising because those in power have been trying for quite some time to have such a party, and Thapa’s party might just receive recognition. On his part, RPP chairman Rana, who has proved to be a feeble and ineffective leader during these three years of his stewarship, cannot escape the blame for his inability to act, according to the party statute, on the call for a special convention registered by more than one-third of the convention delegates. This was certainly not a democratic position, howsoever one may disagree with the dangerously ‘regressive’ agenda of the Thapa-Lawoti faction. Though in a future democratic setup the RPP might not be a major factor to reckon with, in current politics under an active monarchy it will continue to generate a lot of interest and debate for obvious reasons.