KATHMANDU — The Nepali Congress is not healing. It is hardening. Nearly a month after the party’s special general convention, the two rival factions are digging in, not reaching out.
One side has set up a new office. The other side is sending out membership deadlines.
Neither side is blinking. The dissident faction opened an office in Chundevi, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, and has begun expanding organizational work for the 15th General Convention. That is a concrete move.
Offices cost money. Staff need to be hired.
Structures need to be built. None of that happens if you expect to reconcile next week. It happens when you expect a long fight.
On the other side, party president Gagan Kumar Thapa has warned that members who do not renew their digital active membership by July 4 will no longer be recognized by the party. That deadline is days away. For a party that cannot agree on who leads what, a membership purge is a loaded weapon.
Leaders inside the party have criticized the move, arguing the leadership is focused on administrative measures rather than bridging the internal divide. Dr. Minendra Rijal, a senior party figure and former minister, described the situation plainly in an interview with Khabarhub.
Two parallel organizational structures, he said, are deeply problematic. He compared it to two software teams both claiming to run the same app. Conflicting updates.
Nobody knows which version to trust. In plain terms, the party has two sets of leaders giving orders.
That is no way to prepare for an election. Rijal’s core argument was simple. The party must unite.
Not merge factions. Unite. That distinction matters.
A merger implies two equal groups deciding to combine. Uniting implies something harder — one party, one direction, one set of orders.
Rijal’s comments suggest the current approach misses the bigger problem. Sending out deadline notices does not heal wounds. It deepens them.
The consequences are already visible. The party is not preparing for elections.
It is preparing for a split. Two offices. Two sets of activities.
Two claims to legitimacy. The July 4 deadline will force members to choose sides. Those who miss it lose recognition.
Those who meet it pledge allegiance to one camp. Either way, the party gets smaller, not bigger.
What comes next depends on whether anyone can change course. Rijal has called for unity. But no one has stepped forward with a plan to achieve it.
The establishment faction holds the party machinery. The dissident faction holds its own office and momentum.
Both sides seem to believe time is on their side. That is a dangerous bet for a party that needs to contest elections. The practical upshot: instead of reconciling, the party is hardening positions.
Instead of building bridges, it is building offices. Instead of healing, it is sending deadline notices. The split is not softening.
It is solidifying. And with every day that passes without a real effort to unite, the cost of reunification rises.
