Kathmandu, March 19 (IANS) Gagan Thapa, who was elected president of the Nepali Congress through a controversially-held special general convention in January, has resigned from his post following the party's electoral setback in the recently held parliamentary elections.

Thapa himself suffered a humiliating loss at the hands of Amaresh Kumar Singh of the all-conquering Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in the Sarlahi-4 constituency in Madhesh Province, as his party came a distant second, with a large number of top leaders also facing defeat.

Thapa, who was his party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, secured 22,831 votes against the 35,688 votes polled by Singh, becoming part of a long list of heavyweight leaders to have suffered a similar fate.

The Nepali Congress secured a total of 38 seats in the House of Representatives — 18 through direct elections and 20 through the proportional representation system — far fewer than the 88 seats the party won in the 2022 elections. Following the drubbing, a section of Nepali Congress leaders had been calling for Thapa's resignation.

“Thapa tendered his resignation to Vice-President Bishwo Prakash Sharma on Tuesday,” a close aide of Thapa told IANS. “The poor result for the party in the recent elections is the main reason he stepped down from his position.”

The grand old party had entered the polls with the slogan of “We changed the Nepali Congress, and we will change the country”. However, it failed to attract voters as the RSP, led by Rabi Lamichhane and Prime Ministerial aspirant Balendra Shah, swept the polls with an almost two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, the lower house.

As per the party’s statute, if the party’s central president wishes to resign, the resignation must be submitted to the Central Working Committee through the vice-president. The party’s meeting of Central Working Committee is scheduled for Friday.

If the Central Working Committee accepts the resignation, the party vice-president will assume the role of acting president and take charge of responsibilities, and a special general convention will be convened within six months to elect a new central president.

When a special general convention held in Kathmandu this January elected a new Central Working Committee under Thapa’s leadership, it was considered a decisive break from the old generation to a new one. Many believed that under Thapa, who was popular among Nepali Congress cadres, the party would perform well in the elections held on March 5.

However, the poor results invited criticism of Thapa and his team, particularly from leaders close to former Prime Minister and former party president Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Thapa, 49, rose to prominence as a student leader during the 2006 people’s movement, when his speeches denouncing the monarchy and advocating the establishment of a republic resonated strongly with young people.

Since emerging on the national stage two decades ago, Thapa has remained a widely popular figure within the party and, to a large extent, among the general public. Following the Gen-Z movement in September last year, Thapa teamed up with then general secretary Sharma to call for a special general convention, arguing that the party needed change ahead of the elections scheduled for March this year.

Although Thapa’s team took leadership through the forcefully-held special general convention, the party performed poorly in the parliamentary elections held in less than two months after he was elected president.

--IANS

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