KATHMANDU, Oct 12: Gagan Kumar Thapa has been elected president of “Nepali Congress 2.0,” but the party’s latest leadership transition reflects a recurring pattern: leaders rise with support and leave amid bitter disputes.
Thapa secured 6,584 votes in Friday’s election at the convention that opened in Kathmandu on October 4. His attempt to secure unanimous election failed when Shyam Krishna Khadgi refused to withdraw, despite other rivals stepping aside. Khadgi received 375 votes.
Bishwa Prakash Sharma was elected senior vice-president unopposed, as was Pushpa Bhusal to the women’s vice-presidential position. Counting for other offices continued, while the rival Congress faction accelerated preparations for a separate convention in November and December, beginning with local elections.
Congress traces its origins to 1946, when activists organised to overthrow Rana rule and establish democracy. Two parties merged in 1950 to form the Nepali Congress. Across eight decades, however, its presidents have rarely enjoyed a graceful departure.
Party records show that leaders’ promising beginnings often ended in conflict. From Tanka Prasad Acharya, chosen at the Bhawanipur convention, to Sher Bahadur Deuba, elected at the 14th convention, leadership transitions have repeatedly exposed divisions.
A special convention held without Deuba’s consent removed him from the presidency. A case concerning the party’s legitimacy remains before the Supreme Court. By the time it concludes, Congress could be firmly divided into two organisations.
Earlier presidents also suffered difficult exits. Matrika Prasad Koirala formed a separate party as his dispute with BP Koirala deepened. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who devoted his life to Congress, announced his departure in his later years.
Subarna Shumsher Rana, who mobilised resources and political support to build the party, handed over leadership prematurely as internal disagreements intensified. After King Mahendra dismissed the elected government and imposed direct rule in December 1960, the 1961 Patna conference assigned Rana the acting presidency. Differences subsequently emerged over the movement’s direction.
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The party’s beginnings were equally complicated. When BP issued a public appeal in October 1946, Nepali students at Banaras Hindu University had already established the Nepal Students’ Association in Varanasi, with Bishwanath Prasad Mishra as president and Bhattarai as vice-president.
Inspired by BP’s appeal, Bhattarai, Dilli Raman Regmi, Bal Chandra Sharma and other activists met in Kashi in late October. The students’ association coordinated the gathering, which formed the All India Nepali National Congress committee to end Rana rule and establish democracy.
Its first convention on January 26, 1947, adopted four resolutions, identifying British rule as an obstacle to democracy in Nepal and India. It praised the sacrifices of Nepal Praja Parishad activists and called for a nonviolent movement.
Devi Prasad Sapkota became president, Sharma vice-president and Bhattarai general secretary. BP coordinated the organisation, although a collection of his records describes his address as a presidential speech.
Meetings between BP, Ganesh Man Singh and other activists led to the Bhawanipur convention in Kolkata in January 1947, now recognised as Congress’s first convention. It settled the party’s name, flag and constitution and selected the imprisoned Acharya as president.
Disagreements between the president and executive leadership emerged early. Regmi was later chosen president for a year, but BP’s subsequent declaration of himself as president deepened the split.
By 1948, their struggle had produced two factions, with Matrika Prasad leading one. The Nepali Democratic Congress was also established in Kolkata that July, advocating the king’s liberation and popular government. Its flag carried four white stars on a red background. The eventual merger created the Nepali Congress, but its history of leadership disputes continued. Those early rivalries foreshadowed the difficult transfers of power that would recur throughout the party’s history.
The Nepali Democratic Congress held its first convention in Kolkata in December 1948, electing Mahendra Bikram Shah president, Surya Prasad Upadhyay general secretary and Prem Bahadur Kansakar joint general secretary. Party documents say its mouthpiece, Nepal Pukar, began publication that October.
The two Congress parties merged in March 1950 to form the Nepali Congress, but internal disputes soon intensified. A Congress government took office under Matrika Prasad Koirala in November 1951. His rivalry with BP Koirala forced the postponement of the party convention in early 1952.
Matrika withdrew his presidential candidacy that April, agreeing to support BP on condition that the party backed his government. BP became president in June, but decisions soon followed to remove Bhadrakali Mishra and others from both government and party.
Mahendra Bikram Shah formed a separate Nepali National Congress faction. In August 1952, Congress expelled Matrika and two others, stripping them of ordinary membership, according to Grishma Bahadur Devkota’s Nepal’s Political Mirror.
Matrika established the Rastriya Praja Party in April 1953. Attempts to unite Congress with its leftist faction failed, although the latter merged with Matrika’s party that August. Bedananda Jha’s Nepali Tarai Congress was also active.
The Rastriya Praja Party subsequently joined the Nepali Congress unconditionally in 1955. That year, the Birgunj convention elected Subarna Shumsher Rana president. Congress won a two-thirds majority in Nepal’s first general election in 1959, forming a government under BP Koirala.
King Mahendra dismissed the government in December 1960. Subarna, who had already handed over party leadership, was assigned the acting presidency at the Patna conference. Leaders differed over how to oppose the king. BP and other jailed leaders were released after eight years.
BP returned from exile in India in December 1976 with a national reconciliation policy. In 1977, he entrusted the acting presidency to Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Subarna died that year. Despite his contributions to founding and sustaining the Nepali Congress, he received little recognition within the party until recent years.
The 1980 referendum favoured a reformed Panchayat system over multiparty democracy. Bhattarai and others wanted to reject the result, alleging fraud, but BP disagreed. Suffering from throat cancer, BP died in July 1982 without formally transferring leadership.
Bhattarai became president at the eighth convention in Kalbalgudi in 1991, the first convention in three decades. He handed leadership to Girija Prasad Koirala in 1996, but announced his departure from Congress in 2007.
Girija retained the presidency through the 2001 and 2005 conventions. Against his wishes, a November 2009 Mahasamiti meeting amended the statute to require elections for multiple leadership positions. His influence was waning when he died in March 2010, before transferring leadership through a convention.
Sushil Koirala became president in September 2010. After the constitution’s promulgation in September 2015, his renewed bid for prime minister drew criticism. He planned to seek another presidential term, but became increasingly isolated as influential allies deserted him. He died at home during local party elections, before handing over leadership.
Sher Bahadur Deuba won the presidency in 2016 and again in 2021. After he was assaulted at home during the September 2025 Gen Z uprising, a campaign to remove him gathered momentum.
Deuba told the central committee that October that he was preparing to transfer leadership. The two general secretaries demanded a special convention, which the establishment rejected. They nevertheless held one the following January and declared Deuba removed.
The dispute has since produced rival convention processes, while the Supreme Court continues to hear the case concerning the party’s legitimacy. Once again, a Congress president’s departure has become a struggle over who controls the organisation and who can claim its name.