Congress Split — What Lies Ahead?

Exclusive: As influential young Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa himself once remarked, the Sher Bahadur Deuba faction—run by what he described as “slaves and corpses”—has finally taken action against none other than the party’s own General Secretaries, Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma. They have been stripped even of ordinary party membership and expelled for five years. With this move, the Nepali Congress has split for the third time in its history.

Meanwhile, at the initiative of General Secretaries Thapa and Sharma, a Special General Convention was convened with the signatures of 54 percent of the party’s General Committee members. This convention has resolved to reorganize the party under the leadership of Gagan Thapa. With the Congress splitting on the eve of a general election, the question now is: what path will the party take?

The Road Ahead for Congress

When the massacre of Gen-Z youths occurred during the Gen-Z movement, the Home Minister was from the Nepali Congress itself—Ramesh Lekhak, derisively referred to as “Kafiya Kyun Lutawala Natwarlal.” The Foreign Minister was Arzu Rana, the wife of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, widely notorious as the “Pampha Devi of corruption.” In the nearly two-thirds majority government formed in alliance with the UML, the Nepali Congress held roughly half the share of power.

Yet, tragically, when the UML-led Oli government—of which the Nepali Congress was a partner—devised a strategy to violently suppress the historic Gen-Z youth movement of Bhadra 23 and 24 (September 8 and 9), the party’s command lay with General Secretaries Thapa and Sharma. But when that very government opened targeted fire on Gen-Z protesters, turning the movement into a massacre, these two general secretaries remained helpless and silent.

Even when media outlets broadcast images of bundles upon bundles of cash—worth millions and billions—burning in the homes of the Deuba couple and corrupt minister Deepak Khadka, they did not utter a single word. While the Deuba couple remained inside their home guarding illegally hoarded millions in bribes, Gen-Z protesters were beaten and had to be rescued by the Nepali Army via helicopter. After all this, Deuba and his secretariat shamelessly attempted to dismiss the video footage of money burning at the Deuba residence as AI-generated fake content.

Amid these developments, demands and aspirations for a leadership change within the Congress were quietly but steadily growing. Accordingly, Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma called for a regular party convention before the elections. However, the Central Working Committee—dominated by the Deuba faction—decided that holding a general convention before the elections was impossible. In response, the Gagan faction advanced its demand for leadership change through a Special Convention. When the Deuba-led Central Committee outright rejected this proposal, the Gagan faction moved forward by creating circumstances to elect new leadership through the Special Convention anyway.

Now, a dispute will inevitably arise at the Election Commission over which faction is official. However, leaders emerging from the Special Convention—backed by a majority of representatives—will at least be able to face the electorate by placing the bloodstains and black stigma of the Gen-Z massacre squarely on the faces of the Deuba loyalists, while portraying themselves as morally untainted.

But this alone does not absolve the opportunistic helplessness displayed by the so-called “reformed” Congress and its leaders. Unless these “reformed” Gagans commit themselves—true to the spirit and essence of the Gen-Z movement—to leading the country toward a corruption-free society, good governance, and genuine prosperity, the day is not far when they will either truly reform—or vanish altogether.

Let there be awareness.