Most of the 26 new parties participating for the first time in the House of Representatives elections scheduled for February 21 have adopted a strategy of electoral alliances and collaboration along with expanding their organizations. Those preparing for the elections by forming new parties include people from various sectors of society to leaders involved in the Gen-G movement.

Among the old parties, the Congress and the UML are preparing to bring in new leadership from the general convention or revive the old leadership, while the CPN (Maoist) and the Unified Socialist Party, including the United Socialist Party, are holding election-oriented unity meetings in the provinces. However, some of the new parties are working on electoral alliances and collaborations, while others are going to the people and sharing their agendas for expanding their organizations.

The Ujjwala Nepal Party (UNEPA) has been registered under the patronage of Kulman Ghising, who is leading three ministries in the interim government, namely energy, physical infrastructure, and urban development. This party, headed by Anup Kumar Upadhyay, has started election preparations along with the formation of the organization. Ghising himself, who will become the chairman of UNEPA after stepping down as a minister, and the current chairman Upadhyay have been making public statements. Upadhyay is a former energy secretary. This party has a majority of people from the engineering sector and former employees. Environmentalists Sagar Dhakal, Dr. Abhishek Raj Singh and other activists are also included in it. Ujjaya Nepal, which is set to announce the formation of a party on 17 Mangsir, has deployed central members to build organizations in each district. An election manifesto writing committee has been formed under the leadership of Shankar Dhakal, while a committee has been formed to hold talks with various parties under the coordination of Tara Joshi. The head of the manifesto writing committee, Dhakal, is an engineer by profession, while negotiation committee member Joshi is an independent MP in the Sudurpaschim Provincial Assembly. Unepa is continuing its campaign to connect other parties to the party along with the organization building and candidate selection process. Minister Ghising is sometimes holding discussions with Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balendra Shah and sometimes Dharan Sub-metropolitan City Mayor Hark Sampang for electoral unity. He is trying to form an electoral alliance even if it is not a national unity.

According to Unepa spokesperson Raju Thapa, the party has prioritized the issue of connecting alternative political forces. ‘We are trying to connect all the alternative and new forces as much as possible, that effort is ongoing,’ he said, ‘We have also taken forward the organization building as a campaign. We have already launched a campaign in Bagmati Province and have also formed a committee at the ward level in Kathmandu.’

The National Change Party has been registered under the coordination of Rajesh Pratel, an injured person in the Gen-G movement. He lost his right leg during the Gen-G movement. This party has 21 central members. Coordinator Portel has said that it will form an inclusive party of all castes, genders, regions and communities. He said that by participating in the elections, the voice of Gen-G will be established in central politics. This party is trying to collaborate with Hark Sampang’s Shram Sanskriti Party and others. Portel said that there is a strategy for electoral collaboration with other parties as well. ‘Republic, inclusiveness and secularism are the principles of our party,’ he said.

 The Janadesh Party has been formed under the chairmanship of Advocate Raman Kumar Karna. Karna, who is also the secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, has actress and media entrepreneur Eliza Gautam, advocate Jasmine Ojha, among others in his party. Laxmi Ghalan of the ‘LGBTQ community’, Madan Karki, an injured member of the Gen-G movement, and Biplav Neupane, a Gen-G leader from Pokhara, are also affiliated with this party.

 Discussions are underway in this party on how to go to the elections. Consultations are also being held with other parties to form an alliance, said Ojha, the founding leader of the Janadesh Party. ‘We are in discussions about forming an alliance and going to the elections as much as possible, dialogues are underway with various parties,’ said Ojha, ‘We are also preparing for the situation of having to go to the elections alone. Work is underway to expand the organization. The first central committee meeting discussed the election agenda and the party’s principles.’

Former Inspector General of Nepal Police Sarbendra Khanal has also formed a new party, Samunnat Nepal Party. Khanal joined the UML after leaving the police service. He contested elections twice from UML but could not win. Khanal, who was defeated from Kathmandu-6 in the 2079 House of Representatives elections from UML, was also defeated from Tanahun in the by-election held in Baisakh 2080. 

Chairman Khanal has said that he will go to the elections with an agenda of good governance and prosperity. Samunnat Nepal has simultaneously moved forward with the formation of an organization for the elections and discussions with other parties. He informed that dialogues for electoral coordination are underway with other parties, with the idea that it would be better to move forward together than to go to the elections as many parties. ‘After forming the party, we are building an organization, the work of writing an election manifesto has moved forward,’ Khanal said, ‘Dialogues are also underway with other parties for the elections.’

Leaders who broke away from the Janmat Party led by CK Raut have launched the Sarvodaya Party. This party was formed under the chairmanship of Deepak Kumar Sah. Sah was the vice-chairman and founder of the Janmat Party. This party includes Surendra Narayan Yadav, who is the treasurer of the Janmat Party, and Shambhunath Sah, who is the head of the foreign department. ‘We formed a new party after the leadership deviated from the objective for which we started the Janmat Party. Since the leadership of that party was engaged in individualism, we took a different path,’ said Chairman Sah. ‘Preparations are being made to cooperate with other parties rather than go it alone. It has not been decided who we will cooperate with.’

Yogendra Mandal, who was elected to the House of Representatives from Morang-5 as an independent candidate in the 2079 elections, has also formed a new party, the National Energetic Party Nepal. He joined the UML after being elected to the House of Representatives. However, the parliament was dissolved after the Gen-G movement and he has not joined the UML and is moving towards forming a new party. 

Similarly, the Dynamic Democratic Party (Galopa) has been formed under the initiative of businessman Birendra Bahadur Basnet, who is also the owner of Buddha Air. The chairman of this party is hotelier Dinesh Prasai. The party's Hartakarta Basnet, whose office bearers have announced that they will not contest the elections, is only a central member. Party leaders say that he did not become an office bearer with a plan to contest the elections. Other office bearers and central members are also entrepreneurs and experts in various fields. The general secretary is businessman Piyush Kayastha. He is an agricultural expert, while Arju is a partner in the Rice Industry. Two of the five general secretaries are women.

Galopa is building an organization, an election agenda, and

talking to people from various fields. According to Galopa's president Prasain, work is underway to set an economic agenda and move forward with organization building and expansion. 'We are preparing the party agenda, basically giving importance to the economic transformation agenda. Discussions are also underway with experts and stakeholders from various fields,' he said. 'We are intensifying the work of organization expansion.'

Prasain also said that the party is holding public programs in various places on tourism, education, health, the country's political stability, and development. "We are making the criteria for becoming a candidate public within a few weeks. After the selection of candidates begins, preparations are also being made to bring in people who are in our contact and publicly call for candidacy," said Chairman Prasain. "We are not in discussions with new parties right now. We are already building the organization. We are also preparing to bring in good and honest people from old parties. We are also waiting for the general convention of UML and Congress." He said that preparations are being made to bring in some leaders from old parties and field candidates.  Dharan Sub-metropolitan Mayor Hark Sampang has also formed a party and is engaged in the election campaign. Devraj Lama is the vice-chairman of Sampang's Shram Sanskriti Party, Aryan Rai is the general secretary, Samita Rai is the treasurer, and Arun Gurung is the spokesperson. Most of the people in the central committee are from the tribal community. Sampang has been writing statuses on social media welcoming people from those who have gained fame in society to those who have gone viral on social media to his party. 

Rather than coordinating with other parties, the party was formed with the aim of contesting elections alone and spreading the labor culture campaign, said spokesperson Arun Gurung. ‘We are not going to form an alliance, we are going to the elections alone. Wherever the people call, we will go. We have been called in districts including Kavre and the west, we will go there,’ said Gurung. ‘We are going to keep working. Social transformation is our campaign. We are going to establish a labor culture, we are going to keep building organizations.’

He informed that Chairman Sampang has resigned from the post of mayor of Dharan and has decided to become a candidate in the House of Representatives elections. ‘Chairman Hark Sampang will be a candidate from Sunsari-1, we will field candidates in all constituencies as much as possible,’ said spokesperson Gurung. When the Maoists and Unified Socialists, including the left-wing parties, united to form the CPN, Janardan Sharma of the Maoists and Ghanshyam Bhusal of the Unified Socialists did not participate in the unity. Although Sharma and Bhusal discussed joining forces for some time, they have now gone their separate ways. Sharma has registered the Progressive Democratic Party (PRALOPA) along with former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, Santosh Pariyar, who left the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and others. The party is led by Sharma's supporters, including Sudan Kirati and Ram Karki. Sharma is not in the executive role of PRALOPA. A five-member presidential council has been formed in PRALOPA. These include Ojaswi Bhattarai, Durga Sob, Santosh Pariyar, Sudan Kirati and Ashok Jaiswal. 'Right now, we are in the process of building and expanding the organization, there is a matter of building an organization at the basic level. We will go to the districts and municipalities after building the organization,' Sharma said.

Sharma said that as the elections are approaching, the party has moved forward with the direction of building its own organization and emphasizing electoral cooperation with other parties rather than seeking unity with other parties. 'There is no question of unity with other parties, but discussions are being held about electoral cooperation,' he said.

Pralopa is running a campaign to include Maoist and Unified Socialist leaders who are not part of the NCP. Under this campaign, Maoist central members Bamdev Chhetri, Govinda KC and Kismat BK have recently been included in the party. Pralopa has started trying to lure disgruntled leaders from the center to the district level.