KATHMANDU, Sept 10: Two years after the formation of the party, the chairman of the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), Mahantha Thakur, is in the process of forming the party’s Central Committee. According to party leaders, he is ready to publish the list of the Central Committee within a couple of days.
While registering the party with the Election Commission (EC), the LSP leaders submitted the list of 19-member Executive Committee. The list submitted only for the purpose of party registration was not of the Central Committee but of the Executive Committee.
For two years, Chairman Thakur did not even form the fraternal organizations of the party. Mahantha Thakur, Rajendra Mahato, Sarat Singh Bhandari, Anil Jha and other leaders revolted from the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and submitted an application for LSP registration to the EC on August 17, 2021. Nine days after its registration, the commission recognized it as a party. Even now, the LSP is running on the basis of the 19-member Executive Committee submitted to the EC.
JSP election for party posts other than chairman underway
Thakur's name appears as the chairman of the 19-member Executive Committee submitted to the EC. According to party sources, Thakur has prepared the names of 308 central members. According to party sources, only 108 of them are women. In the statute of the party, there is a provision that a Central Committee can be formed with up to 401 members.
A leader close to Thakur, Dr Surendra Jha, said that the party chairman is preparing to make the list of central members public within a week. “The chairman has entrusted the responsibility to the party leaders. The official list is ready. It’s just that they haven’t made it public yet," he said.
The leaders close to senior leader of the party, Rajendra Mahato, are dissatisfied with the fact that Thakur did not form a central committee and fraternal organizations for a long time. They have repeatedly drawn Thakur's attention to this matter. But they are disappointed that Thakur has not shown much interest.
“It is a bit late to form a Central Committee to include all party leaders. Now the list of the Central Committee will be made public immediately,” said one of the leaders closer to Thakur.
Now the leaders of LSP are divided into two factions. Thakur leads one faction and senior leader Mahato the other. The relationship between Thakur and Mahato has deteriorated since the election of members of the House of Representatives (HoR) and Provincial Assembly held in November last year. Leaders close to Mahato say that Thakur is hesitating to form a Central Committee after the relationship with Mahato deteriorated. Labor and Employment Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari, who joined the government from the party, is considered to be close to Chairman Thakur.
Leaders argue that the party chairman's inaction has resulted in the failure to establish a Central Committee and reduce the electoral threshold for HoR member elections. But leaders close to Thakur say that all party leaders are equally responsible for the party's failure to reduce the electoral threshold.
After losing his seat in the HoR, Mahato has been spending more time in Madhesh than in Kathmandu. Thakur stays in Kathmandu most of the time due to his health complications. LSP won only four seats in the HoR election. The party has not been able to achieve the status of a national party due to the failure to reduce the threshold in the elections.
