New parties force old ones to re-think their strategy

With the emergence of new political forces such as Rastriya Swotantra Party, leaders from major political parties seem alarmed be worried. The introduction of new technology in politics and the interest shown by the new generation in the political affairs have, no doubt, alarmed them. The traditional parties have even failed even to renew membership of their existing cadres, not to talk about attracting new youths to their outfits. For instance, the CPN-UML, the second-largest party in the Parliament, which completed its grassroots campaign only a couple of months ago, has been taken aback by the discouraging response it got from the grassroots.

The party’s central secretariat meeting on Saturday decided to extend the deadline to renew party membership by 15 days until July 31 as almost half of the members didn’t show any interest in renewing their membership even as the deadline expired on Sunday. The leaders were well aware about the changing situation. While presenting his political paper in the party’s top body in a couple of months ago, UML chief KP Sharma Oli expressed concern over the party’s latest position. Analyzing the results of the bypolls conducted in Tanahun, Chitwan and Bara Oli wrote in his paper a “serious matter” for the party.

The Nepali Congress, the largest party in the Parliament, is also facing the same situation. Some of its departments and wings have become almost functionless. Party’s yong general secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwo Prrakash Sharma, are trying to speak the voice of the younger generation in a bid to counter emerging leaders of other smaller parties. Thapa has during a programme announced that he would work hard to change the party’s Parliamentary Party Leader and even prepare himself to contest for the post of Parliamentary Party leader. A group of young democrats recently launched a ‘Nepali Congress Rupantaran Abhiyan’ to bring transformation within the party organization. Similarly, pro-monarch Rastriya Prajatantra Party has come up with the concept of Navin RPP in an attempt to attract youths to the pro-Hindu outfit. The senior leaders of the ruling CP-Maoist Centre also do not seemed to be satisfied with the working style of the government. However, till now no one in the party has the courage the challenge party supremo Prachanda’s leadership. Many parties are now targeting the next general election slated to be held in 2084 B.S. and parties like UML and RSP have already started preparations on how to win the election in 2084.