KATHMANDU: The intra-party rift inside Nepal’s main opposition CPN-UML has reached a new flashpoint, with party chair KP Sharma Oli mounting an increasingly personal offensive against former vice-chair and ex-president Bidya Devi Bhandari, once one of his staunchest allies during his own political struggles.
Bhandari, who served two terms as Nepal’s head of state, announced her return to UML politics on June 28 through a program organized by the Madan Bhandari Foundation. Oli, party insiders say, has since been mobilizing his full political weight to block her re-entry into active party affairs.
At the August 21–22 Central Committee meeting, Oli pushed through a decision to invalidate Bhandari’s party membership, which she had renewed in mid-April, and issued an internal directive barring her from attending any party forums. He also instructed subordinate committees not to provide her with any political platforms.
Following that meeting, Oli convened UML leaders from all seven provinces at his Baluwatar residence, warning that Bhandari was attempting to bring a storm into the party. He reportedly demanded guarantees from provincial and central leaders that she would not be given space in public events or internal programs, framing it as a pre-emptive move to prevent a two-line struggle inside UML.
Bhandari, however, has refused to back down. On July 24, she told a press conference in Babarmahal that no one can stop her from being active in UML. The event was attended by nearly half a dozen Central Committee members, defying Oli’s directive. Since then, Oli has resorted to sharp, even insulting, language against her in internal discussions and public addresses.
In recent days, Bhandari has moved to set up a liaison office in Thapagaun, Kathmandu, the same building from which her late husband and former UML General Secretary Madan Kumar Bhandari ran his 1991 election campaign. The property is currently used by the Madan Bhandari Foundation, chaired by her daughter Usha Kiran Bhandari.
The liaison office plan has further angered Oli, who now appears to be targeting the foundation itself. On Monday, speaking from the party’s central office in Chyasal, Oli accused the foundation, where he himself is a patron, of being a scam vessel controlled by hypocrites, without naming names.
The escalating tensions are also linked to Usha Kiran’s recent resignation from UML’s Foreign Affairs Department, following the party’s decision to void her mother’s membership renewal. Though neither she nor department chief Raghubir Mahaseth has formally commented, her departure is widely viewed as an expression of dissent.
Oli, once politically sidelined within UML, had himself used the Madan Bhandari Foundation as a platform to rebuild his influence during the late 1990s and early 2000s when Madhav Kumar Nepal was general secretary. Bidya Devi Bhandari became the foundation’s chair in 1999, and for years the institution was closely tied to Oli’s factional rise.
The foundation, officially registered in 2004 as a research and educational trust, runs the Madan Bhandari Memorial College, a secondary school, scholarship programs, and district-level committees across Nepal. While formally a non-partisan non-profit, it has long been seen as an influential network within UML politics.
Critics, including leaders in other parties, have mocked Oli’s sudden denunciation of the very platform that helped him consolidate power in earlier years. Former central committee member Damodar Aryal quipped that if the foundation is indeed corrupt, as Oli claims, he should apologize to the public as its own patron.
UML youth leader Prakash Paudel also accused Oli of insulting the legacy of Madan Bhandari, saying the foundation remains a vital medium to keep his life and ideas alive.
The feud shows no sign of cooling ahead of UML’s upcoming statute convention in September, where the party leadership has already indicated Bhandari’s case will not be discussed. Oli’s camp maintains that a former president should remain above active party politics. Bhandari’s supporters insist she is a former UML vice-chair first, and will not be silenced.
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