Thapa brings hope for hardliners
- Loyals see in him much-needed leadership traits
For many in the struggling hard-line camp, Maoist General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa brings new hopes. Though relatively a new entry into the camp, the hardliners have started viewing him as the faction’s second-in-command, who, with all his charisma, could fill up the leadership gap that a frail Mohan Baidya leaves.
Since his disenchantment with Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Baidya had been on the lookout for a reliable and special deputy leader to help him consolidate power under his own ideological frame.
Though Baidya leads the hard-line camp and is respected for his solid ideological grounding, he lacks sound health and, some believe, also the personality to challenge the rival leaders and handle national and international public relations for the faction.
Standing Committee member Netra Bikram Chand is emerging as a potential leader of the camp but he lacks gravitas to challenge party Chairman Dahal. “Thapa is an only figure in our camp that can face up to the rival leaders such as Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai,” said a Central Committee member.
Leaders say Thapa’s another asset is he knows Dahal better than anybody else in the faction does. “Dahal often fears Thapa as he knows many of his secrets,” said the leader.
For a long time, Thapa maintained a neutral position in the face of rising factionalism in the party. “He is the second leader (after Baidya) of our camp who is sharp in both politics and ideology,” said CC member Ram Acharya. Few days ago, Baidya requested Dahal to filed Thapa as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, which proves Thapa is the ideologue’s “most favoured”.
Leaders in the other faction, however, see Thapa as a looser and opportunist. “He lacks consistency on his political and ideological line. Dahal can easily cajole him for some plump posts,” said a Dahal supporter. His leadership, some say, has already been tested and he has failed. “He was a disaster when he was the defence minister in the Dahal-led government in 2008,” said another Dahal confidante.
Maoist leaders say he was the prime cause for the dissolution of the Dahal-headed government. “He does not have leadership capability, he lacks capacity to push ideology and organisation together,” said Politburo member Haribol Gajurel.
Breaking his neutral position, Thapa for the first time on July 13 last year joined the Dhobighat meeting called by Baidya, Bhattarai and another Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha to put an end to Dahal’s monopoly.
Though Bhattarai and Shrestha distanced themselves, the very Dhobighat meeting brought Baidya and Thapa closer.
Thapa is one of the seven office bearers, also referred to as “party headquarters”. Out of the seven, three office bearers belong to the hard-line camp, one to the Bhattarai group and three to the Dahal faction.
If Dahal fails to take Shrestha into confidence, he will be in a minority in the party headquarters.
Thapa is a top ethnic leader of the Maoist party after Shrestha. As the ethnic and regional politics is gradually challenging the national politics, Thapa’s entry has benefited the hardliners.
Some ethic lawmakers such as Harilal Thapa and Krishna Bahadur Gurung joined the hard-line camp after Ram Bahadur joined the faction. “Thapa is a top ethnic leader of our party. His entry to the Baidya camp will benefit the faction in mass politics,” said CC member Khagaraj Bhatta.
Posted on: 2012-01-08 09:18
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