28 Falgun 2076. There was a unity announcement program of RPP and RPP Samyukta. Kamal Thapa, who was seen on the podium, had the Hindu religious text Gita in his hand.

 He said while showing the Gita, ‘I swear by holding this Gita in my hand, I will not let the RPP break.’

Thapa’s Gita oath was broken in about 2 years. After losing to Rajendra Lingden for the party chairmanship in the unity convention held in 2078, Thapa announced that he was leaving the RPP. Lingden had secured 1,844 votes in the convention, while Thapa had secured 1,617 votes. He revived the RPP Nepal by reaching Hetauda on 25 Mangsir 2078.

Thapa, who had separated in this way, returned to the RPP on 9 Poush. An agreement was reached between the RPP and the RPP Nepal to reunify, and both hugged each other, saying that the unity declaration meeting would be held at the National Assembly on 16 Poush 2082.

For the RPP, disintegration is nothing new. This was just the latest example of the tradition of frequent division and reunification. Looking back at history, in the 35 years since its establishment, the RPP has split six times and united five times.

After the restoration of democracy in 2046 BS, those who had been in the Panchayats came to the conclusion that they should form a political party. They decided to form the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and unite within it. But the history of the RPP has never flowed in a straight line since then. Most of the powerful leaders of the Panchayat period, including Surya Bahadur Thapa, Pashupati Shamsher Rana, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, were included in the party, but due to their own conflicts, they sometimes united and then broke up again.

The players who divided and united the party were - leaders Surya Bahadur Thapa, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, who had become Prime Minister during the Panchayat period, as well as Panchayat ministers Prakash Chandra Lohani, Pashupati Shamsher Jabra, Kamal Thapa, Buddhiman Tamang, Padmasundar Lawati, Rabindranath Sharma, Rajeshwor Devkota, and others. Some of these leaders are still active in politics. Surya Bahadur Thapa, Rabindranath Sharma, Rajeshwor Devkota, and Padmasundar Lawati have passed away.

Division since formation

After the Panchayat ended and democracy came, they had to become active in politics. Therefore, they prepared the name, statute, and flag of the party. After doing this, a dispute began over who would lead the party. At that time, a dispute surfaced between Surya Bahadur Thapa and Lokendra Bahadur Chand. The dispute over who would be the president resulted in the party becoming two instead of one.

On 15 Jestha 2047, two parties were announced, namely RPP (Chand) and RPP (Thapa). Both these parties participated in the first election after the establishment of multi-party system. Both parties suffered humiliating defeats in the election. Out of 205 constituencies across the country, the Chand faction won only three seats and the Thapa faction won only one seat.

Pashupati Shamsher Rana (Sindhupalchowk), Prakash Chandra Lohani (Nuwakot) and Ramkrishna Acharya (Rasuwa) were elected from RPP (Chand). Akbar Bahadur Singh of Darchula became the only MP to win from RPP (Thapa). Thapa himself was forced to bow to the Chand faction after he failed to win from Dhankuta.

Learning from this, they started efforts for unity. After a few months of efforts, they agreed to form a party. It was decided to name the party Rastriya Prajatantra Party. They agreed to change the leadership every five years according to the democratic process by keeping the election symbol as the halo. In 2048, a unified party was formed. Surya Bahadur Thapa became its chairman. Although Thapa became the chairman, the Chand and Thapa factions remained.

A taste of power when the third party was present, but division when it became the second

The RPP's journey was not easy in the days that followed. In 2051 BS, due to internal disputes within the Nepali Congress, the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala dissolved the parliament and called mid-term elections. This unity provided the RPP with an opportunity to become somewhat powerful in parliamentary politics.

The RPP became the party holding the key to power by winning 19 seats across the country. According to the election results, the RPP emerged as the third force and became the key to power when the Nepali Congress and the Nepal Communist Party (UML) did not get a clear majority.

After no party won a majority in the mid-term elections, the UML formed a minority government under the leadership of Manmohan Adhikari. This government lasted only nine months. After removing Adhikari, Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba came to power. One of the players in that game was the RPP. It was led by Surya Bahadur Thapa.

After Thapa's efforts, Deuba became the Prime Minister. When Deuba was the Prime Minister, Thapa came out against Lokendra Bahadur Chand within the party, saying that he had recommended ministers of his own free will.

A few months later, UML leaders became active in toppling the Deuba government. The same disgruntled Chand faction of the RPP supported the UML. Lokendra Bahadur Chand supported the UML after receiving assurances that he would become the Prime Minister. Chand became the Prime Minister from the RPP-UML alliance in 2054 BS.

Thapa became angry with Chand after the government he led collapsed because of his own friends. At that time, Thapa had slammed Chand in a party meeting, calling him an 'opportunist without political ethics'.

The dispute between Chand and Thapa led to a growing discontent within the RPP. Chand's move prompted Chairman Thapa to take revenge. He decided to overthrow the government led by his friend Chand and form a government under his own leadership with the support of the Congress. Within a year of the party's formation, the RPP formed another government, overthrowing the party-led government.

This disagreement led to a split in the party after Thapa became the Prime Minister. Due to the internal conflict within the RPP that began during the transfer of power, the party split when Surya Bahadur Thapa became the Prime Minister. Six years after the unity, the party split for the second time and reached a state of unity. In 2053 BS, the party split into RPP Chand and RPP Thapa.

Like in 2048 BS, this split did not prove fruitful for them. In the 2056 general election, both the RPPs suffered heavy defeats. While the Thapa faction was satisfied by winning 11 seats, the RPP (Chand) could not win a single seat. In the first election, the Chand faction was strong and the Thapa faction was weak. However, after 6 years, the situation was reversed.

After this defeat, pressure was created for reunification. They began preparations. Nine years after the first unification and three years after the division, the party was unified in 2057 BS.

Third division under Gyanendra's rule

The leaders of this party, which had united for the second time due to defeat, did not show any sense of reconciliation. Within two years of unification, a rift arose within them. The only reason for this was the desire of former King Gyanendra Shah to rule the government himself.

When Gyanendra, in his capacity as king, dismissed the elected government's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on 18 Asoj 2059 BS, this incident again sowed division in the RPP. Surya Bahadur Thapa was against King Gyanendra's intervention. However, after Lokendra Bahadur Chand accepted the king's proposal and became the prime minister, the division got a chance to sprout.

Kamal Thapa, who left Chand in the second split and came to the Thapa camp, left Surya Bahadur and supported the king this time. Kamal Thapa not only supported the king, but also split the party. In 2062, he called a separate meeting and formed 'RPP Nepal' and announced that he was the chairman. Thapa, who led the third split of the RPP to support the king, was given the responsibility of Home Minister during the king's direct rule.

After the fourth split, the RPP split into three

In this way, the RPP, which had two parts, was split by Thapa and senior leader Prakash Chandra Lohani with him, who separated from the then chairman Pashupati Shamsher Rana. Unable to accept Rana as the chairman, he himself formed a new party called 'Rasty Janshakti Party', splitting the RPP for the fourth time.

Thus, within a decade of the party's establishment, the former Panchas came to be in the form of three parties: the RPP, the RPP Nepal, and the Rastriya Janshakti Party. All three parties participated in the first Constituent Assembly election held in 2064. They also became weak in this election. Chairman Pashupati Shamsher himself was defeated. He was defeated for the first time in 25 years.

With the defeat in the Constituent Assembly election, the former Panchas began a third attempt at unity. In 2070 BS, these two parties united. Rana and Surya Bahadur Thapa came together. The new party was named the RPP. However, the dispute over leadership continued as long as Thapa was alive.

Thapa passed away in Baisakh 2072 BS. After that, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Prakash Chandra Lohani, and Pashupati Shamsher Rana agreed to take turns running the party. In the meantime, they tried to bring Kamal Thapa in, but if he remained in favor of a political system with a king, the Ranas would no longer be able to return to the republic.

Fourth Unity

Two parties, the RPP and the RPP Nepal, participated in the second Constituent Assembly elections. They entered the election field with the symbols of a plow and a cow. The election results showed that the RPP won 3 seats directly, while the RPP Nepal did not win any seats directly. Although it could not win any seats, Thapa's RPP Nepal, which carried the issue of Hinduism and constitutional monarchy, managed to win 24 seats through proportional representation. The RPP, on the other hand, won three seats directly and nine seats through proportional representation.

The reunification process was started with the conclusion that the division had weakened each other. The two parties united on 2073 Mangsir 6. Kamal Thapa became the party president and Rana became the national president.

The fifth split

This was the fourth unity of the party. However, this unity also did not last long. In Chaitra, 2073, Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani formed the Unified Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nationalist). The reason behind forming a separate party was that Lohani had no role. Lohani, a leader since the establishment, had split the party because he did not get the chairman and had no role in the party. Pashupati Shamsher Rana split the party in Shrawan 2074 and formed the RPP (Democratic). In Magh 2075, the Unified RPP (Nationalist) and RPP (Democratic) agreed to unite and form the RPP jointly. A program was scheduled for 25th Shrawan. However, on 24th Shrawan, RPP Democratic Chairman Rana issued a statement.

Rana mentioned that since further discussion and agreement on the contents of the interim statute is required for unity, there is no agreement on a balanced statute between the two parties to make the unity process successful. Thus, the party of the former five who had united just a day earlier could not reunite. When they did not agree on the view of the monarchy and the election symbol, the unity was broken. From Deepak Bohora to Rana and Thapa themselves, they accused each other of breaking the party unity.

Eight months later, on 25 Falgun 2076, they reached an agreement and

RPP was united again.

Sixth division

On 19 Mangsir 2078, elections were held for the new leadership of RPP and Rajendra Lingden was elected as the chairman. Lingden got 1,844 votes while Thapa got 1,617 votes. After being defeated in this way, Thapa could not accept defeat. He congratulated Lingden but did not openly congratulate him. Thapa accused Nirmal Niwas of interfering in the internal competition of the party.

‘I condemn the naked interference of Nirmal Niwas in the internal competition of the party

,’ he had said. ‘I have received relief and liberation.’ And on 25 Mangsir 2078, he reached Hetauda and announced with a heavy heart that he had left the RPP. He revived the old party RPP, Nepal.

Seventh unification