The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has shrunk again within a year with its dissidents, supported ostensibly by the establishment, passing a vote of no-trust against RPP chairman Pashupati Shumsher Rana at a ‘special general convention’ and electing Kamal Thapa president of the splinter party unopposed. Last time a faction led by the party’s former chairman, Surya Bahadur Thapa, had hived away to form the Rastriya Janashakti Party. This

time around, even this party of former Panchas was divided between the government faction seeking a clear RPP policy in favour of the King’s agenda including the forthcoming civic polls, and the establishmentarians led by Rana favouring a line which calls for the ‘creation of an atmosphere in which all parties could take part in the polls’. However, the parent RPP’s recent central committee meeting left, rather oddly, the decision whether to take part or not to the party’s district committees—a decision which satisfied neither side.

Though he led the rebel faction, Padma Sundar Lawoti, the expelled RPP vice chairman, and another presidential hopeful, Rabindra Nath Sharma, had to withdraw their candidacy after the mid-convention magic play of the ‘invisible hand’, leaving home minister Thapa unpposed as president. But RPP chairman Rana has dismissed as ‘ridiculous’ the claim that he has been deposed by ‘some rowdies of Asan and Ratnapark’. Of the 37 central members, 13 attended the ‘special convention’, including 10 expelled by the parent party on Monday. However, the onus of proof falls entirely on the splinter group as the parent party is already recognised, though some fear, with some merit, that given the mood of those in power something strange might happen. And, evidently, this splinter group is going to embrace a hardline rightist posture.

Since the run-up to the dissolution of the House of Representatives more than three years ago, massive attempts are perceived to have been made to truncate the political parties. The Congress became two, the Nepal Sadbhavana Party followed suit, and the RPP has been sundered twice. However, the tactic has not worked with the CPN-UML and the Maoists, though those in power have indicated, perhaps unwittingly, that if coaxing does not work, a policy of divide and rule will be adopted. But the configuration of political forces and the emerging political formations in the country do suggest that even these upheavals in the political parties are unlikely to make things any easier for the government. Showdowns of unprecedented nature appear imminent.