Hetauda, Feb 23: Bharat Parajuli, chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party in Makwanpur, has resigned from the party. He has returned to his old political home, the Nepali Congress, where he had spent 30 years of his political life.
While RSP Makwanpur was holding a public gathering today at Huprachaur in Hetauda Sub Metropolitan City Ward 4, Parajuli travelled to Sarlahi and formally joined the Nepali Congress.
Nepali Congress leader Gagan Kumar Thapa welcomed Parajuli into the party in Sarlahi. Parajuli, along with other RSP Makwanpur leaders, had reached Sarlahi on Sunday night.
After meeting Thapa, Parajuli announced his resignation through social media, raising questions about the party’s leadership style. “Over time, the trends emerging within the party forced me to think seriously.
The objectives, values, and ideals with which we understood the party have been moving in the opposite direction in practice,” Parajuli said. “The growing influence of a limited group of individuals, a culture of favoritism, intolerance toward criticism, and weakening internal democracy left me disappointed.”
A resident of Manahari Rural Municipality, Parajuli had been unanimously re-elected as district chair from the party’s first district convention held on November 22, 2024. He had earlier left the Nepali Congress to take up leadership in the RSP.
In the 2022 House of Representatives election, Parajuli contested from Makwanpur Constituency 2. He secured 12,039 votes and finished third. From the same constituency, CPN UML candidate Mahesh Bartaula won with 34,916 votes, defeating CPN Unified Socialist candidate Birodh Khatiwada, who secured 30,396 votes.
Parajuli had wanted to contest again in the House of Representatives election scheduled for March 5. He had gone to the party’s Kathmandu office seeking the ticket. But he returned empty-handed after 25-year-old Prashant Upreti, also from Manahari Rural Municipality, was awarded the ticket in front of him.
After being denied the ticket, Parajuli grew dissatisfied and had been in contact with senior Nepali Congress leaders in Makwanpur. “After he did not receive the ticket, party chair Rabi Lamichhane called him on the eve of candidate registration and said the party values his contribution. But Parajuli chose to return to his old home,” one of his aides said.
Parajuli is a long-time Nepali Congress figure. Known for his calm and courteous nature, he has built a strong political image in the western part of the district.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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