Sajha Bibeksheel Party

Sajha Bibeksheel Party (Nepali: साझा विवेकशील पार्टी) is a political party in Nepal. It was founded as Bibeksheel Sajha Party on 26 July 2017, after the merger of Bibeksheel Nepali Dal and Sajha Party.[3][4][5][6]

Sajha Bibeksheel Party साझा विवेकशील पार्टी
Spokesperson	Surya Raj Acharya
Coordinator	Rabindra Mishra
Founder	Rabindra Mishra
Founded	26 July 2017 (2017-07-26)
Merger of	Bibeksheel Nepali Dal Sajha Party
Headquarters	Bakhundol, Lalitpur, Nepal
Youth wing	Sajha Youth Organization
Women's wing	Sajha Women Organization
Ideology	Social democracy[1] Inclusive democracy [2] Progressivism
Political position	Centre to Centre-left
Election symbol
Website
bibeksheelsajha.org
Politics of Nepal Political parties Elections

History

Background

Bibeksheel Nepali Dal was founded in 2013 with an aim to "change the country’s politics". The founder of the party, Ujwal Bahadur Thapa, ran as an independent in the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections along with four other candidates in different constituencies in the Kathmandu Valley. After the elections, the party registered with the Election Commission of Nepal. It became active in various political causes after the elections. The party was involved in relief distribution after the 2015 Nepal earthquake and protested against the delay by the government in reconstruction on the anniversary of the earthquake.[7][8] The party also protested against controversial commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Lokman Singh Karki, and also expressed solidarity with corruption crusader Dr. Govinda K.C.[9][10] The party also contested the 2017 local elections, with their mayoral candidate for Kathmandu, 21-year old Ranju Darshana, finishing third with 23,439 votes.[11][12]

Sajha Party was founded in 2017 by the former editor-in-chief of BBC Nepali Service, Rabindra Mishra.[13] It was formed as an "alternative" party and guided by the welfare economy and inspired by global norms of democracy.[14] The party contested the 2017 local election as independents with Ramesh Maharjan and Kishore Thapa finishing third and fourth in Kathmandu and Lalitpur elections respectively.[15][16][17] Deputy mayor candidate Sobha Shakya finished in second place in Lalitpur, and Nirupama Yadav finished third in Kathmandu.[15][17][18] The party was not as successful outside the Kathmandu Valley with their candidates in Itahari getting less than 500 votes.[19]

Foundation

The two parties announced their merger on 26 July 2017, with the party to be led under the joint leadership of Rabindra Mishra and Ujwal Bahadur Thapa. The party adopted scales as their electoral symbol.[3][4][5][6] In the 2017 legislative elections, the party contested 60 seats but won none.[20] Party founder and leader Rabindra Mishra lost in Kathmandu to Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh by a margin of just 818 votes.[21] The party won 212,336 votes under proportional representation and finished with the sixth highest number of votes in the country. They were unable to cross the three percent threshold to gain seats in the House of Representatives.[22] The party also did not win any seats in the 2017 provincial election under first past the post but won three seats to the Provincial Assembly of Province No. 3 under proportional representation after finishing with the fourth highest number of votes with 124,442 votes.[23] The party decided to support Nepali Congress candidate Radhe Shyam Adhikari in the National Assembly elections on 6 February 2018.[24] Bibeksheel Sajha Party, along with Naya Shakti Party, abstained from voting in the 2018 presidential and vice-presidential elections.[25] The party split on 11 January 2019 when party co-cordinator Ujwal Thapa, along with 16 central committee members filed an application to register a new party at the Election Commission.[26] The party changed its name to Sajha Bibeksheel Party on 27 April 2019.[27]

Electoral performance

Nepalese Legislative Elections

See also: House of Representatives (Nepal)

Election	Leader(s)	Votes		Seats		Position	Resulting government
		#	%	#	+/-
2017	Rabindra Mishra Ujwal Bahadur Thapa	212,366	2.22	0 / 275		6th	CPN (UML)–CPN (Maoist Centre)

Presence in various provinces

Province	Seats	Year of election
Province No. 3	1 / 110	2017

See also

• Naya Shakti
• Bibeksheel Nepali
• Sajha Party

References

1. Mishra, Rabindra. "BSP's express mission is to turn Nepal into welfare state: Mishra".
2. Mandal, Chandan Kumar. "Sajha and Bibeksheel to unite, announcment [sic] today". Ekantipur. Kantipur Publications. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
3. "Rabindra Mishra asks EC to secure Sajha Party's name, election symbol". The Himalayan Times. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
4. "Mishra quits BBC to form 'Sajha Party'". The Kathmandu Post. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
5. "Journalist Mishra registers Sajha Party". Republica. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
6. "Rabindra Mishra's brainchild is born: Sajha Party proposes Balance as its election symbol". Onlinekhabar. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
7. "Political party Bibeksheel Nepali reached more than 6,000 households". ekantipur.com.
8. "Bibeksheel Nepali protests against govt - The Himalayan Times". thehimalayantimes.com. April 25, 2016.
9. "Bibeksheel demonstrates against CIAA chief". myrepublica.com.
10. "Solidarity rally in support of Dr. KC today". myrepublica.com.
11. "21-year-old woman files candidacy for youngest kathmandu mayor - Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
12. "Victory in defeat". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
13. "Rabindra Mishra asks EC to secure name and symbol of Sajha Party". The Himalayan Times. March 1, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
14. "Mishra quits BBC to form 'Sajha Party'". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
15. "Sajha Party fields mayor, deputy mayor candidates in Lalitpur". The Himalayan Times. April 29, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
16. "Ex-Secy Kishore Thapa fielded as Sajha's independent candidate for Kathmandu mayor". The Himalayan Times. April 14, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
17. "CPN-UML's Bidya Sundar Shakya elected Kathmandu Metro City mayor". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
18. "NC wins mayor, deputy mayor in Lalitpur metro". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
19. "Sajha Party loses luster in Itahari Sub-metropolis; gets only 181 votes". My Republica. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
20. "Bibeksheel Sajha contesting for 60 seats, with focus on Valley". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
21. "With Mishra's defeat, Bibeksheel Sajha loses hope for direct win". Retrieved April 18, 2018.
22. "Only five parties crossed the threshold margin in PR votes - People's Review". People's Review. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
23. "EC announces PR seats for Provincial Assembly". My Republica. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
24. "BSP, NSP-N to support NC candidate". The Himalayan Times. January 25, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
25. "Bibeksheel Sajha, Naya Shakti abstained from presidential poll". My Republica. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
26. "17 months after unification, Bibeksheel Sajha Party splits". kathmandupost.ekantipur.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
27. "अब साझा विवेकशील". www.kantipurdaily.com (in Nepali). Retrieved April 29, 2019.

External links

• Sajha Bibeksheel Party on Facebook