Kathmandu: The first national conference of the CPN (Maoist) is being held from Sunday after the dissolution of the party unity with the UML and returned to its old state. The leadership of the Maoists, who have been accustomed to parliamentary practice for a decade and a half after entering the peace process through armed war since the Panchayat period, is old. Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has been the main leader of the party for three decades. This time the conference is also selecting only central leaders other than the original leadership.

No one has been able to talk about Prachanda’s alternative in the conference which is being convened by delegates from all over the country. Nor have they dared to clash with him on ideological issues.

Compared to the past general conventions and conferences, there is a void in the present Maoist conventions. Because when it comes to this conference, only certain followers of Prachanda are left in the Maoist Party. All those who had ideological struggles with him have left the party.

On the other hand, leaders who have been leading the party for more than three decades and challenging him for political and organizational leadership have not been able to survive in his party. Therefore, this conference is being presented as a platform to re-legitimize Prachandal’s leadership.

CP Gajurel said, “He is not a leader who can bring together dissenting leaders. It also shows how divided the Maoists are. ‘

According to Gajurel, Prachanda does not have as much responsibility as he should have to include all parties within the party.

After the failure of the policy of armed insurrection in 2046 BS, the then General Secretary of the CPN (Mashal) Mohan Vaidya proposed to reduce the responsibilities of the leaders including him one by one and made Prachanda the General Secretary of the party.

Since then, he has been the uninterrupted leader of the CPN (Unite center), CPN (Maoist), Unified CPN (Maoist) and CPN (Maoist Center).

Not only Mohan Vaidya but also Baburam Bhattarai, CP Gajurel, Ram Bahadur Thapa, Netra Bikram Chand, Gopal Kirati, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, , Rabindra Shrestha and Mani Thapa are out.All leaders are from the People’s War.

The Maoists had become the largest party in the first Constituent Assembly election, winning 220 seats out of 601. It is currently in third place with 48 seats in the House of Representatives. The election of the second Constituent Assembly left the Maoist center in an even weaker position.

At this time, whatever the CPN-Maoist center Prachanda says has become like a club. It has also been announced that this national conference will finally be transformed into a general convention. According to leftist analyst Shyam Shrestha, to do so would be to devalue the importance of the General Convention within the communist movement. He said “the General Convention has special significance.”
Lately, there has been controversy over who will be the next leader of the party after Prachanda. But apart from Prachanda, there is a lack of leaders who think politically and ideologically. Leaders like Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Barshaman Pun and Janardan Sharma, who are claiming Prachanda’s succession, are thinking of increasing their power by adding more money than ideological work.