Socialist Front Left Rudderless?

Immediately after his exit from the government, CPN-Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda moved to activate the Socialist Front in order to bolster the opposition politics. Prachanda resorts to the Front whenever he feels threat from the big political parties. But attempts to use the Front to meet vested interest has now left it rudderless. One of its constituents – Janata Samajabadi Party Nepal – led by Upendra Yadav – has refused to be a part of it. Yadav has blown a fuse after the split of his party. He sees the hand of Prachanda, also former prime minister, in the division of the party. Driven by a feeling of vendetta against Prachanda, he voted for newly elected Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli when the latter sought vote of confidence in the House of the Representatives (HoR) recently. 

Now Prachanda is making every effort to persuade Yadav and bring him on board but to no avail. With only five seats in the Lower House, Yadav's political power has massively eroded. His political career is at stake. Still he is an important figure in Madhes. He has the legacy of spearheading the Madhes movements that forced the centre to accept federalism. This is a reason why Prachanda wants to include Yadav in the Front. By rejoining the Front, Yadav can flex political muscle. But Yadav has already said that his party would not sail on two boats. 

Showdown 

One year ago, the Socialist Front came into existence. It comprised the Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, the then JSP Nepal and Netra Bikram Chand Biplav-led CPN. The combined seats of these parties stood at 54. Apparently, there lay strategic aim in forming the Front.  Prachanda had an alliance with the Nepali Congress, the largest party with 89 seats in the HoR.  He needed strength for a showdown with the NC in case the two parties crossed swords over the affairs of the state. However, the Front became inactive when Prachanda allied with CPN-UML to form the government, ditching the NC. Prachanda had prophesied the possibility of broader left alliance after switching to the UML. The Maoist and UML leaders have even talked about the unity of the two parties in the future. 

However, Prachanda’s naivety got exposed after the UML and NC decided to constitute a national ‘consensus government’ to ensure stability and cut the fringe parties down to their size.  Now as the country’s politics has undergone volte-face, the Front’s importance has increased for the smaller left parties, especially the Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialist. Recently, the Front held its first meeting after the Maoist Centre became an opposition party. The splinter group of Nepal Samajabadi Party, led by Mahendra Yadav, has been roped into it to compensate Upendra Yadav’s desertion. 

At the meeting held at the office of the Unified Socialist, Prachanda had admitted that the Front’s role was overshadowed as he had to engage himself in running the government, and urged the attending leaders to go together. Prachanda claimed the NC-UML alliance tried to trample the forward-looking spirit of the constitution and they needed the fronts of many organisations and civil societies to safeguard the national charter.

Unified Socialist chair Madhav Kumar Nepal has critisised Prachand for ignoring the Front. However. Nepal was happy as Prachanda came to his office to hold the Front’s meeting. In view of the alliance of two largest parties in the parliament, the Front’s numerical strength does not pose any serious challenge to the government but Prachanda is determined to leverage it to check the decline of his influence as well as the potential arbitrary behaviour of the new dispensation. 

With the formation of the new government, the smaller parties fear that the big parties would crush their voice and their role in the decision-making process and eventually render them redundant in the national politics. As the new government has a two-thirds majority in the House, it can amend the constitution, Acts and laws, which might go against the interest of the fringe forces. A few days ago, Unified Socialist chair Nepal told his party functionaries that a conspiracy was being hatched against his party. 

Apprehension 

Sometime back, JSP Nepal split and the splinter faction is now in the government. The smaller parties have apprehension whether the government will bring ordinance to divide them. Some are even afraid of being framed in false cases of corruption and fraud. More importantly, they are scared of the possible step to increase the threshold to be a national political party through constitution revision. Some leaders of some big parties have called for increasing the threshold to establish two-party system and maintain stability.

In view of the changing political landscape, the Front requires reinventing its role, purpose and position. In the multiparty system, the smaller parties have the right to operate and grow but they should not act as killjoy and a means of instability in the country. Against this backdrop, the Socialist Front can be an alternative platform for the leftist and progressive forces. The evolving subjective and objective conditions decide the fate of the parties. Given tricky geopolitical situation and weak economy, there is no chance for the rise of any Leviathan to rule the country with an iron fist.

  (The author is Deputy Executive Editor of this daily.)