Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal

Infobox_Nepalese_Political_Party
party_name = Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal
devanagari_name = राष्ट्रिय प्रजातन्त्र पार्टी नेपाल
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president = Kamal Thapa [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/mar/mar02/news17.php "Sharma resigns as RPP-N chief; Thapa takes over"] , Nepalnews, March 2, 2008.]
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Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal is a Right-wing, Conservative, and royalist, political party in Nepal, a splinter group of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party. [ [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-747CN9?OpenDocument Situation Reports: Nepal, OCHA Nepal Situation Overview - Jun 2007 ] ]

The party supports retaining Nepal as a Hindu monarchy. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/jun/jun19/news13.php Nepalnews.com Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd ] ] The party was registered with the Election Commission of Nepal ahead of the April 2008 Constituent Assembly election. [ [http://www.election.gov.np/NP/legal/list.php पार्टीको सूची — Election Commission of Nepal ] ] Ahead of the election, the party sought to form a front of royalist parties. [ [http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=136515 eKantipur.com - Nepal's No.1 News Portal ] ]

History

The party was initially led by Kamal Thapa, home minister under King Gyanendra's direct rule. Thapa resigned as party chair in October 2006. [ [http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=89698 eKantipur.com - Nepal's No.1 News Portal ] ]

The party won the largest number of mayors in the 2006 municipal election. The party candidate, Rajaram Shrestha, won the mayoral post in the capital Kathmandu. The election was, however, boycotted by most major parties. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2006/feb/feb10/news01.php Nepalnews.com Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd ] ]

In April 2006, the Nepal Samata Party (Socialist) merged into the party. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2006/apr/apr05/news12.php Nepalnews.com Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd ] ]

In January 2007, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nationalist) of Rajeswor Devkota and Bidwai Parishad of Jit Bahadur Arjel merged with the party. [ [http://www.ipcs.org/Feb_07_SAnepal.pdf Microsoft Word - Feb_07_SAnepal.doc ] ]

On March 2, 2008, Rabindranath Sharma stepped down from the position as chair of the party, citing health reasons. Kamal Thapa again became chair of the party.

The RPP-Nepal won four seats in the April 2008 Constituent Assembly election. At the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly on May 28 2008, the RPP-Nepal was the only party to oppose the declaration of a republic; there were 560 votes in favor of a republic and only the RPP-Nepal's four votes against it. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/may/may29/news01.php "RPP-Nepal becomes the only party against republic; some lawyers question procedures adopted by CA"] , Nepalnews, May 29, 2008.] Thapa subsequently said on June 20 2008 that the country faced an impending "disaster", urging alertness among the party. He said that the party's policies and programmes would remain the same despite the political change. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jun/jun21/news01.php "Thapa predicts disaster soon"] , Nepalnews, June 21, 2008.] On July 13 2008, he described the abolition of the monarchy as merely "an interim decision", saying that the RPP-Nepal sought the restoration of the monarchy. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jul/jul14/news03.php "Thapa hopes for revival of monarchy"] , Nepalnews, July 14, 2008.]

The party decided the boycott the July 2008 presidential election, held in the Constituent Assembly, on the grounds that the major parties were treating the election as a partisan contest. [ [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/jul/jul18/news10.php "RPP-Nepal to boycott the presidential election"] , Nepalnews, July 18, 2008.]

In August 2008 some senior leaders, like Rabindranath Sharma and Rajeshwor Devkota, left the party and joined the RPP. [http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/aug/aug21/news06.php]

References