KATHMANDU: The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has assigned responsibilities to various office-bearers, Secretariat members and central committee members following its Central Committee meeting held on Friday.
The meeting also assigned responsibilities to leaders heading different sister organisations of the party.
RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane has included several leaders who either withdrew their candidacies or were defeated in the party’s first General Convention, held in Chitwan from June 21 to 26, in the Secretariat.
However, prominent leader Toshima Karki has not been included in the Secretariat. Former general secretary candidate Ganesh Karki and Sagar Dhakal have also been left out. Dhakal had previously served as a Secretariat member.
Ganesh Parajuli, Shishir Khanal, Kabindra Burlakoti and Jagadish Kharel, who had withdrawn their candidacies for the general secretary post, have been nominated as Secretariat members. Manish Jha, who was defeated in the general secretary race, has also been included.
Indira Rana, who withdrew her candidacy for vice-chair, has also been appointed as a Secretariat member.
Former party treasurer Lima Adhikari, Gen Z activist Purushottam Yadav and Bibeksheel Sajha leader Samiksha Baskota have also been included in the Secretariat.
However, Ranjhu Darshana, who had withdrawn her candidacy for the general secretary post from Bibeksheel Sajha, has not been included. Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, who was preparing to contest for vice-chair, has been appointed a Secretariat member.
Jagadish Kharel, who withdrew from the general secretary race at the last moment, has also been given the responsibility of party spokesperson.
Toshima Karki, who was elected to the House of Representatives from Lalitpur-3 in the 2022 general election, has not been included in the Secretariat. She has instead been assigned as head of the Public Health Organisation.
Pramod Neupane, considered close to Lamichhane, has been appointed head of the Organisation Department, while another Lamichhane confidant, Dipak Bohara, has been appointed a Secretariat member.
Lamichhane has said that Friday’s appointments are only the first phase and that more leaders will be given responsibilities in the coming days. Addressing the Central Committee meeting, he said capable and qualified leaders would gradually be given opportunities.
However, discussions of dissatisfaction within the party have emerged after Toshima Karki, who has been active in the party for a long time, was left out of the Secretariat. Karki is currently abroad and has not publicly commented on the matter.
Questions have also been raised over the exclusion of Ranjhu Darshana, who has remained an influential figure within the party. Darshana was previously the general secretary of Bibeksheel Sajha and was elected to the House of Representatives from Kathmandu-1.
Different Views and Exclusion
Ganesh Karki, Toshima Karki, Sagar Dhakal and Ranjhu Darshana are regarded within the RSP as leaders who have comparatively different views.
Party insiders have begun discussing whether their tendency to openly raise internal issues and examine matters from multiple perspectives may have affected their priority in the latest allocation of responsibilities.
Lamichhane, however, has urged leaders who have not received responsibilities in the first phase not to be concerned, reiterating that opportunities will be provided to capable and qualified leaders gradually.
Whether Toshima Karki, Ranjhu Darshana, Sagar Dhakal and Ganesh Karki will receive responsibilities in subsequent phases or gradually be sidelined from the party’s core structure remains to be seen.
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