Leaders in Saptari switching parties to secure candidacy

By Mala Karn, Kalyanpur, Aug. 29: Leaders who were seen changing parties to stand in May’s local level election have started changing parties again to get tickets for the upcoming elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies. 

Months prior to the May 13 election saw many leaders and cadres switch party allegiance to get a chance to register their candidacy. Those who won were happy but those who lost have again begun changing political parties to be able to stand in November 20 elections. 

And the parties too look more than happy to accept defecting leaders to increase their might in specific constituencies.

Recently, the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party Nepal (LSP-N) held a party entrance programme in Rajbiraj where the former mayor of Rajbiraj Municipality Shambhu Prasad Yadav, along with many former ward chairmen, formally joined the party. 

Shambhu had been elected mayor from the then Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJP-N) in 2017 local election. He later became a member of the Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal (JSP-N) after his party RJP merged with Samajbadi Party.

However, after JSP-N refused to give him a ticket for this year’s local polls, he quit the party and joined CPN (Maoist Centre) and stood for the post of Rajbiraj mayor under the latter’s election symbol. He lost and has now moved to a third party in less than three months.

Similarly, on Saturday, JSP-N Chairman Upendra Yadav welcomed the former head of Saptari’s District Coordination Committee Prakhabar Yadav into his party. Prabhakar had opted to join LSP when the Mahantha Thakur and Rajendra Mahato-led faction split from JSP-N. However, because the party refused to field him as a candidate in May’s local election, he quit and joined the Janata Pragatisheel Party (JPP) from where he stood for the mayorship of Chhinnamasta Rural Municipality. He came in sixth in the election results.

Former ward chairs Pramila Devi Yadav and Amarnath Mandal as well as central member of the Bibeksheel Party Suman Kumar Mishra also joined the JSP-N on Saturday.

Amarnath had followed Prabhakar into JPP and had stood for the chairmanship of Rajbiraj Municipality’s Ward No. 6. He came in seventh.

Likewise, Satish Kumar Singh, former chairman of Tilathi Koiladi Rural Municipality and a youth leader of LSP, joined the Janamat Party on Thursday. He had stood and lost the last local election from LSP and seeing little chance of getting a ticket to stand at the provincial or federal level, joined the CK Raut-led party last week. His father Shekhar Prasad Singh, however, continues to remain a member of the National Assembly from LSP.

Observers say that leaders changing parties, almost overnight, for election tickets is a long-standing trend in Saptari. However, it is a trend that puts cadres and activists struggling within a party at a disadvantage. “Parties giving tickets to leaders who have just joined is an injustice to those who have spent years and even decades with them and have contributed to their growth and success,” said Shatrudhan Prasad Sah, Khadak Municipality in-charge of CPN (Unified Socialist). “This also costs the parties as they lose elections when they field defecting leaders.”

The candidates who were defeated at the local level change parties to ensure their career, members of different parties claim.