Rastriya Prajatantra Party

Rastriya Prajatantra Party
Rastriya Prajatantra Party; राष्ट्रिय प्रजातन्त्र पार्टी
Abbreviation	RPP
Chairperson	Kamal Thapa; Pashupati SJB Rana; Prakash Chandra Lohani
Founded	29 May 1990
Headquarters	Charumati Bihar, Chabahil, Kathmandu, Nepal[1]
Student wing	National Democratic Student's Union Nepal
Youth wing	National Youth Front
Women's wing	National Democratic Women's Union
Ideology	Hindutva[2]; Hindu nationalism[3]; National conservatism; Royalism; Economic liberalism
Political position	Centre-right to right-wing
International affiliation	Asia Pacific Democrat Union
Seats in Pratinidhi Sabha	1 / 275
Election symbol
Website
	rppn.org
	Politics of Nepal; Political parties; Elections;

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nepali: राष्ट्रिय प्रजातन्त्र पार्टी; translation: National Democratic Party; abbr. RPP) is a royalist and Hindu nationalist political party in Nepal. It was formed by former Prime Ministers, Surya Bahadur Thapa and Lokendra Bahadur Chand. The party has had two Prime Ministers, Thapa and Chand, serving two terms each since the end of the Rastriya Panchayat.

History

Founding and early years, 1990-1991

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party was formed by the ruling elite of the Panchayat era on May 29, 1990. The party split in 1991 over technical differences and two parties bearing the same name, ideology and statute came into existence. The two parties one led by Surya Bahadur Thapa and the other led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand contested the 1991 elections. The two parties did not perform as expected, Thapa's party winning 1 seat and Chand's party winning 3 seats, and the two parties decided to merge again.[4]

First general convention, 1992-1994

The party held its first general convention on 1992 in Kathmandu and unanimously elected Surya Bahadur Thapa as its chairman. Lokendra Bahadur Chand and Rajeshwor Devkota were elected leader and co-chairman respectlively.[4]

In the 1994 elections, the party received 18 percent of the votes and won 20 seats to the House of Representatives, making them the third largest party in the parliament. No other party got a majority and the party joined coalition governments with Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and Nepali Congress successively.

Flag of Rastriya Prajatantra Party until 2016

Second split, 1997-1999

In 1997 the party split after a faction led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand joined a coalition government with Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), with Chand as Prime Minister. The faction led by Surya Bahadur Thapa allied itself with Nepali Congress and toppled the government. The party expelled Lokendra Bahadur Chand and nine supporters for threatening to back a no-confidence motion against the Thapa led government and Chand started his own party. The second general convention of the party took place in 1998 in Birgunj with Surya Bahadur Thapa again becoming chairman. Prakash Chandra Lohani, Pashupati SJB Rana and Kamal Thapa were nominated as vice-chairman, general secretary and spokesman respectively.[4]

The two parties contested the 1999 elections and fared badly in the election with the partly led by Surya Bahadur Thapa winning 11 seats and the party led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand not winning any seats. Following the elections the parties decided to merge again.[4]

King's rule and Mass Movement II, 2002-2006

After the king dismissed the government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba on October 2002, Lokendra Bahadur Chand was appointed Prime Minister but he resigned in May 2003 and was replaced by Surya Bahadur Thapa.

At the third general convention of the party held in Pokhara on December 2002, Surya Bahadur Thapa retired from his post as party chairman (which was mandatory according to the party constitution, as he had served two four-year terms). Pashupati SJB Rana was elected chairman during the convention and Padam Sundar Lawati, Kamal Thapa and Roshan Karki were nominated vice-president, general secretary and spokesperson respectively.[4]

The party on December 2003 called for Surya Bahadur Thapa to resign as Prime Minister for undermining people's multiparty democracy and he eventually resigned on May 2004. The party split again in March 2005 when former party president Surya Bahadur Thapa broke away and formed a new centre-right liberal party, the Rastriya Janashakti Party.[5]

When the King dissolved the parliament and started his own rule in 2006, the party announced their support for the pro-democracy agitation led by the Seven Party Alliance but ten members of the party's central committee, including spokesperson Kamal Thapa, supported the King. The party members were expelled, including six cabinet ministers, and they eventually formed their own party, the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, led by Kamal Thapa.[5]

Pashupati SJB Rana: former chairperson of the party

Constituent Assembly, 2007-2015

When the Interim-Legislature Parliament was formed under the leadership of Girija Prasad Koirala, the party had nine seats becoming the largest opposition party. In the 2008 elections the party won 8 seats to the Constituent Assembly of Nepal through the party-list proportional representation system.[5] The party joined the Madhav Kumar Nepal led government on June 2009.

In May 2013, the Rastriya Janashakti Party merged with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, with Surya Bahadur Thapa leading the party. The party won 13 seats in the 2013 elections, 3 first past the post and 10 party-list proportional representation seats, becoming the sixth largest party in the 2nd Constituent Assembly. The support for the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)-Nepali Congress coalition government earned the party two portfolios in the new cabinet.[6]

Electoral symbol of the party until 2016

Unification and splits, 2016-present

On 21 November 2016, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal and Rastriya Prajtantra Party announced their unificaion. The new party retained the name of Rastriya Prajatantra Party. The new party had a total strength of 37 in the Parliament of Nepal becoming the fourth largest party[7] Kamal Thapa was elected chairman of the party in a special general convention in Kathmandu on February 2017.[8] The party split again due to differences in selecting the electoral symbol of the party and Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani formed a new party, the Unified Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nationalist) on March 29, 2017.[9] Another split occurred after Pashupati SJB Rana broke away forming Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Democratic).[10] In the 2017 legislative and provincial elections, Rastriya Prajantatra Party formed an alliance with Nepali Congress and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Democratic).[11] The party only won one seat to the House of Representatives with only Rajendra Lingden being elected.[12] The party also could not become a national party after failing to pass the three percent threshold in proportional representation.[13] The party also won one seat each to provincial assemblies of Province No. 1, Province No. 3 and Province No. 6.[14]

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Samyukta) merged with the party on March 12, 2020 with Kamal Thapa, Pashupati SJB Rana and Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani all acting as chairs.[15]

Ideology

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party was established as an alternative force to the major political parties, Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist). The party was founded on the principles of democracy, constitutional monarchy, nationalism and economic liberalization.[16] When the monarchy was abolished in 2008 and Nepal was declared a secular state, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal changed its constitution to support monarchy and the re-establishment of the Hindu state.[17] After the merger between the two parties it was announced that the Rastriya Prajatantra Party would take up the constitution of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal.[7] The party has stated support for a Hindu state with religious freedom and registered an amendment proposal for such on March 19, 2017.[18]

Electoral performance

Election	Leader	Votes		Seats		Position	Resulting government
Election	Leader	#	%	#	+/-	Position	Resulting government
1991	Surya Bahadur Thapa	392,499	5.38	1 / 205		7th	Congress
1991	Lokendra Bahadur Chand	478,604	6.56	3 / 205		5th	Congress
1994	Surya Bahadur Thapa	1,367,148	17.93	20 / 205	19	3rd	CPN (UML) minority
1999	Surya Bahadur Thapa	899,511	10.44	11 / 205	9	3rd	Congress
1999	Lokendra Bahadur Chand	293,952	3.41	0 / 205		9th	Congress
2008	Pashupati SJB Rana	310,214	3.01	8 / 575	3	8th	CPN (Maoist)–CPN (UML)–MJFN
2013	Surya Bahadur Thapa	238,313	2.63	13 / 575	5	6th	Congress–CPN (UML)–RPP
2017	Kamal Thapa	196,782	2.06	1 / 275	12	7th	CPN(UML)–CPN(Maoist Centre)

Presence in various provinces

Province	Seats	Year of election
Province No. 1	1 / 93	2017
Province No. 3	2 / 110
Karnali	1 / 40

Leadership

Kamal Thapa: current chairman of the party

Chairmen of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party since 1990

Surya Bahadur Thapa, 1992-2002, 2013-2014
Pashupati SJB Rana, 1992-2013, 2014-2016, 2020-present
Kamal Thapa, 2016–present
Prakash Chandra Lohani, 2020-present