Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Janardan Sharma, who used to clash frequently when they were in the former Maoists, are now candidates from different parties in neighboring districts. However, the bickering between the two has not stopped yet.
What you should know
On December 10, the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) organized a unity message meeting in Musikot, Rukum West. During his nearly hour-long address, NCP coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal spent about half of his time talking about Janardan Sharma, the former Deputy General Secretary of the Maoist Center.
Sharma was accused of ‘betraying the party’ and ‘running away’. On the same day, he announced, ‘I will contest the election from Rukum, not this Rukum, but another Rukum.’
On December 11, the party district committee meeting recommended the names of nine people, including former MPs Ganeshman Pun, Daljit Sherpali, and Tej Bahadur Oli, after they could not unanimously decide on a candidate for the House of Representatives in Rukum East. NCP coordinator Dahal was single-handedly recommended from Kalikot. He did not choose the district for which he was unanimously recommended, but instead chose the smaller district, Rukum East.
‘There must be some secret in coming to Rukum West and announcing that he will contest elections in Rukum East, most of the time opposing Janardan Sharma,’ said political analyst Laxman KC. ‘He may have sought a safe place as Rukum East is the base of the Maoist movement, but one reason is to provide a counter to Janardan.’ He said that Dahal-Sharma are face to face again because they are emotionally the same district despite being geographically separated. A ‘war of words’ is currently going on between them. Both are criticizing each other.
Sharma has been winning continuously from Rukum West since 2064 BS. This time his party is different. He has filed his candidacy for the fifth time from the Progressive Democratic Party. The main route to and from Rukum East passes through Sharma’s constituency. On Magh 5, Dahal got off the plane at Rukum West and met with local leaders for some time. From there, he went to Rukum East to register his nomination for the 'skirting' of cadres. During the nomination registration, he claimed that he came to the district because he could not forget the base of the armed conflict and his fellow soldiers.
Sharma, who left the party expressing disagreement with the unity of the Maoist Center with the Unified Socialist Party and other parties, has established the Progressive Democratic Party. Sharma, who has become the Minister of Peace and Reconstruction, Energy, Home and Finance, is the only leader from Karnali to win consistently by increasing public opinion. He won the parliamentary elections in 2064 with 22,575 votes, in 2070 with 30,270 votes, in 2074 with 34,402 votes and in 2079 with 39,549 votes. Sharma, who focuses on door-to-door campaigns, spends a lot of time criticizing Dahal during his speeches.
Sharma has been accusing Dahal of betraying the armed revolution. He has 11 competitors from the NCP, including former colleague Gopal Sharma, Nepali Congress's Raju KC, and Rastriya Swatantra Party's Man Bahadur Shahi. UML candidate Nandaram Devkota has made his candidacy inactive by supporting Sharma as per the party center's instructions.
Even when they were in the same party, the then chairman Dahal and Sharma used to have conflicts. civic leader Govinda KC says that the election atmosphere became more interesting when both were candidates from bordering districts. According to him, the election competition has become more interesting after the Progressive Democratic Party's electoral alliance with the UML. 'Dahal fielded his candidacy in a neighboring district to counter Janardan, while UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli made an electoral alliance with Sharma to counter Dahal,' he said, 'The result may be one, but the message it gives is different.'
Dahal and Sharma have a 40-year-old relationship. Devilal Gautam, a NCP leader from Rukum West, says that they met in 2042 BS. ‘They had a close relationship during the war, Dahal was the Supreme Commander, Sharma was one of the four deputy commanders after Dahal, Sharma was close to Dahal and helped him during the army integration, Dahal had also given Sharma important responsibilities in the peace process and constitution-making,’ he said. ‘Even when the UML-Maoist party united in 2074 BS, Dahal had a lot of trust in Sharma.’ But he says that the relationship between them began to crack with the split between the former UML and the former Maoists in 2077 Falgun.’ He says that their dispute began to be made public from the eighth general convention held in 2078 Pus. ‘Sharma and Barshaman Pun were aspirants for the post of general secretary at the general convention, but after Dahal made Dev Gurung the general secretary, Sharma’s dissatisfaction began to be seen in the party meetings thereafter,’ Gautam said, ‘Sharma was the deputy general secretary, but he did not accept the post, since then he started demanding internal democracy and leadership transfer. After the party was unified, he opened another party.’ He also informed that they had tried to reconcile the two leaders during the campaign centered on the Mid-Hill Highway in 2005 and both were positive at that time.
Rukum is considered an area of former Maoist influence. 11 people, including Kusumdevi Thapa Magar from the Nepali Congress, Leelamani Gautam from the UML, Lakhan Kumar Thapa from the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Sandeep Pun from the Progressive Democratic Party, have registered their candidacies with Dahal. Congress candidate Thapa Magar and UML candidate Gautam are central members of the party. Pun is the son of Suryaksha Pun and Parampara Gautam, a martyred couple during the armed conflict. He was the former central vice-chairman of Akhil Krantikari, a Maoist-affiliated party.
When he came to register his nomination, Coordinator Dahal remembered the house he lived in during the conflict and the 'Chunbang meeting' of former Maoists. When the armed conflict started by the then Maoists reached its peak, the Central Committee meeting held in Chunbang in 2062 Kartik decided to go for the peace process. Based on that decision, the Maoists signed a 12-point agreement with the government.
Former MP Ganeshman Pun said that Rukum was the former base area during the armed conflict and Coordinator Dahal had filed his candidacy for the rights and interests of the martyrs, missing persons, injured people, etc. of the district. ‘Many issues of the people’s war still need to be institutionalized, his candidacy is also from here to bring Rukum East into the mainstream of development,’ he said, ‘After his candidacy, the district has received justice.’
In the last House of Representatives election, the then Maoist Purna Bahadur Gharti won with 12,262 votes. Similarly, Surul Pun, who also has a Maoist background, won in Province Assembly 1 (1) with 4,465 votes and Dhan Bahadur KC of Nepali Congress won in Province Assembly 1 (2) with 4,862 votes. The Nepali Congress and former Maoists formed an alliance in the last House of Representatives election. Similarly, Kamala Roka, a former Maoist, won in the 2074 BS House of Representatives election with 10,434 votes.
In Rukum East, which has three local levels, both the chair and vice-chair of Bhume and Putha Uttarganga rural municipalities were won by former Maoists in the last local level election. The former Maoist candidate of Sisne Rural Municipality won the post of Chairman and the UML candidate of Vice-Chairman. According to the District Election Office, there are 34,772 voters in Rukum East. Of these, 660 are new voters. 80 percent of the voters in the district are from the Magar community. Chief District Officer Sita Pariyar said that 44 polling stations and 56 polling stations have been determined across the district.
