Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal at a ceremony on December 26, 2022 in Kathmandu. As the event got underway, the image that came out strongly was that both the former Maoist rebel leader Prachanda and the outgoing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba were dressed in daura-suruwal, the dress of Nepal’s traditional power elite. Mr. Prachanda in the past avoided it and preferred a western jacket. Speculation has begun if the choice of daura-suruwal indicates an evolution in Mr. Prachanda’s ideological journey.
The presence of Mr. Deuba gave the impression of cordial handover of power but in reality it is the sudden re-emergence of friendship between former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Mr. Prachanda that has surprised even the Nepali Congress. It is being said the Nepali Congress was negotiating with Mr. Prachanda for sharing of power in the firm belief that ties between Mr. Oli and Mr. Prachanda were bitter beyond repair.
Also Read | In riveting political drama in Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ named Prime Minister
Mr. Oli and Mr. Prachanda — both former Prime Ministers, had teamed up to win the election in 2017, the first election conducted according to the 2015 Constitution. After the election, the CPN-UML of Mr. Oli and the CPN (Maoist Centre) merged and formed the Nepal Communist Party.
The unity in party however did not translate in consultative decision making as Mr. Oli took a series of decisions without wider consultation. Angered by these decisions, Mr. Prachanda began to agitate and mobilised the Standing Committee of the Nepal Communist Party which ultimately forced Mr. Oli to dissolve the Cabinet in December 2020. Mr. Prachanda did join hands with Mr. Oli earlier that year to put up a joint front on the Kalapani dispute that erupted between Nepal and India after the latter published a new political map that showed the region of Kalapani-Lipulek-Limpiyadhura as part of sovereign Indian territory.
Ground reports suggest, the Nepali Congress was led to believe that Mr. Prachanda was unable to forgive Mr. Oli for his excesses during the last time the two came together in 2017-19. He, however, proved that in 2022, he does not have any of the scruples that made him pick up fights during his first stint in 2008.
Dramatic entry
That year, Mr. Prachanda had emerged as the Prime Minister after months of negotiations with Girija Prasad Koirala-led Nepali Congress. It was a dramatic entry by the former Maoist rebel who was better known by his nom de guerre “Prachanda”, the fierce one. He chose Beijing for his first official foreign trip, sending shockwaves among the “southern neighbour”. But India had old ties with Mr. Prachanda as he had spent most of his career prior to 2007-08 underground or in exile in India as he fought the forces of the King. That year he sacked the Army Chief Rookmangud Katawal over differences to rehabilitate former Maoist fighters into the military forces of Nepal. The clash ultimately led to Mr. Prachanda’s own resignation which allowed Maoist leader Madhav Nepal to become Prime Minister.
The last 14 years have seen several ups and downs for Mr. Prachanda politically but they were also difficult on the personal front as he lost his 36-year old son to a sudden cardiac arrest in 2017. Earlier he lost a daughter to cancer. Personal tragedies did not blunt Mr. Prachanda’s political instincts that emerged from the forests of Nepal and graduated to the moves of the power politics of Kathmandu.
Earlier this year, Mr. Prachanda was hosted by the Government of India giving the impression that Delhi was warming up to him. This time, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese government have congratulated Mr. Prachanda within 24 hours of being declared the Prime Minister. Mr. Prachanda’s real test however will lie ahead as the seven-party coalition that dramatically announced him as the Prime Minister consists of new parties such as the Rashtriya Swatantra Party led by Ravi Lamichhane who has declared to take on corrupt Leftist leaders. By appearing in Nepal’s durbari dress and by joining hands with pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP-Nepal), Mr. Prachanda is probably sending a message that he is not as ideologically moored to his Maoist past as in 2008-’09 or 2016 but it remains to be seen how he will deal with Mr. Oli, who magically created the winning coalition on Sunday. With the Nepali Congress out of the way, Mr. Prachanda’s real challenge is now to ensure peaceful coexistence with the alliance partners that includes former secessionist leader C.K. Raut.
