Narayan Upadhyay

As the hearing on the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) is going on at a feverish pitch at the apex court, the leaders of two rival Nepal Communist Party (NCP) factions are busy flexing their political muscle in the capital streets and elsewhere by holding large protest rallies and mass meetings. At these meetings, the rival leaders have disparaged and tried to expose party opponents over the matters affecting present day politics.
These big protest rallies and gatherings have become handy to show the substantial backing from a considerable number of NCP workers and followers. Besides targeting to determine the group's legitimacy as the Nepal Communist Party, the rallies and protests are aimed at exerting pressures on the opponents and the intended quarters and institutions, apart from shoring up support for workers and supporters from grassroots. 

Retribution
Along with the demonstration of political strength in the streets came a bitter truth - the erstwhile comrades could go to any extreme to drive the adversary out of the political reckoning. With a sense of animosity and retribution, the rival groups have utilised these rallies and mass meetings to heap criticism, engage in name-calling, and hurl insults on rival leaders. Held in a swift succession, the political rallies and mass gatherings, a trademark way of displaying political prowess, have other purposes, too.
It is not a secret the two rival sides, each led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Prachand-Nepal faction, have demonstrated political ingenuity and power to prove the other wrong on the House dissolution issue. They have been offering different logics and reasons to substantiate their position over the issue. Prime Minister Oli has described his move to dissolve the House of Representatives as politically correct one. Because a prime minister like him who has served under the Westminster parliamentary system deserves the right to dissolve the House. 
According to him, he has followed international norms and practices in disbanding the House. He cited his erstwhile party comrades impeded him to perform smoothly as the PM and chair of the ruling party forcing him to terminate the HoR. The Prachanda-Nepal group, however, did not subscribe to the PM's rationale. While dubbing the PM’s action as whimsical, they have called the House dissolution as unconstitutional because no existing arrangement in the country's constitution permits the PM, who retained a majority in the House, to dismiss it without finishing its maximum 5-year tenure. They told their supporters at the mass gathering that it was their follies to follow whatever PM Oli said or did to them during the past three years.
With 13 writ petitions against the House dissolution lodged at the Supreme Court seeking to reinstate the now-defunct HoR, the Prachanda-Nepal group told the crowds attending the last Friday's huge gathering in the capital that the PM's action should be invalidated and the constitutional bench of the apex court should bring the 'derailed constitution' back on track. PM Oli had rejected outright the rival group's demand, stating that the constitution had granted no scope to the apex court to revive the dissolved House. While saying so, he asked all political parties to prepare for the general elections slated for April and May this year.
Leaders Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, and others have cautioned they would take to streets and resurrect the dissolved House through the people's massive protests and demonstrations. These leaders utilised the last week's the mass meeting held in the Bhrikutimandap Road for delivering this very message. Besides suffering from the fear that the apex court may not restore the House, the Prachanda-Nepal faction has also felt terrified about the prospect of Election Commission not recognising their group as the genuine NCP. They said that they tabled the testimony that they had the backing of about 75 per cent of NCP central committee members. 
However, their apprehension turned right after the EC rejected to grant both side the status of bona fide parties. The EC cited the criteria submitted by rival factions had lacked legality, stopping it to grant them the status of the genuine NCP. The EC decision has negated that the split in the party, which may spur the rival factions to take other means to claim superiority over opponents. The rallies and mass gathering can be one way to prove such superiority.
While seeking support from the major opposition and other parties in their bid to reinstate the House, the Prachanda-Nepal group preferred to send a message that they are the force to reckon with in the present set up of NCP.  By mobilising large numbers of party workers, they rather seem successful in influencing the opposition parties that are in two minds whether to join hands with the faction. At the same meeting, leaders Nepal and Prachanda tried to persuade the opposition that they had no intention to reconcile with PM Oli in the future. Senior leaders who addressed the meeting apologised to their supporters and self-criticised for committing mistakes in believing NCP chair Oli.
To counter the rival, the PM's faction said it would organise a bigger political rally and mass gathering in the capital on February 5. If the PM group's statement is any sign, the rally would be a massive one that would eclipse the size of last Friday's mass gathering of the Prachanda-Nepal led side. Earlier, the PM's faction had carried out a massive mass meeting in Dhangadhi where the PM had taken his rivals to task for creating troubles for him for three years following the formation of his government.  

Bitter tussle
These rallies and mass gatherings have showed that rival factions have gone a bit too far to denigrate their former colleagues. They have tried their best to 'expose' their opponents to appease and win back favours of as many party workers as they can. No matter what verdict the Supreme Court will deliver and what impact the latest Election Commission decision would have on the factional rivalry, both sides are sure to tussle bitterly as animosity between them has spiralled out of hand. We may witness bigger protest rallies and mass gatherings at the streets of the capital and other parts as the apex court's day of delivering the ultimate verdict on the HoR dissolution draws closer.

(Upadhyay is Deputy Executive Editor of The Rising Nepal. nara.upadhyay@gmail.com)