The Bibeksheel Sajha Party ( Nepali: विवेकशील साझा पार्टी) is a political party in Nepal. It was the sixth largest party of Nepal by popular vote after

2017 Nepalese general election General elections were held in Nepal in two phases on 26 November and 7 December 2017 to elect the 275 members of the fifth House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament of Nepal. The election was held alongside the first p ...

. Presently, its the fifth largest party in Bagmati provincial assembly.

Background

It was originally founded on 26 July 2017 from the merger of

Sajha Party The Sajha Party ( ne, साझा पार्टी) is a political party founded by former editor-in-chief of BBC Nepali Service Rabindra Mishra. History Sajha Party was founded in 2017 by the former editor-in-chief of BBC Nepali Service, ...

and Bibeksheel Nepal Dal, but the party split on 11 January 2019. The two parties merged for a second time on 9 December 2020. Recently, Bibeksheel Sajha Party has adopted Rabindra Mishra's document 'Changing Course: Nation Above Notion' that proposes abolition of federalism and a plebiscite on secularism. Mishra has been provide the role of chief executive to the party president concluding that granting equal rights to the president and the coordinator led to difficulties in running the party. The document was passed by two third majority of central committee.

History

On 26 July 2017 it was announced that

would merge with Bibeksheel Nepali Dal to form Bibeksheel Sajha Party. The new party would be led under the joint leadership of

Rabindra Mishra Rabindra Mishra ( ne, रवीन्द्र मिश्र) is a Nepali philanthropist, ex-journalist, writer, poet, and politician. Currently, Mishra is the Senior Vice-Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party, after having resigned as a gene ...

and Ujwal Bahadur Thapa. The party adopted scales as their electoral symbol. In the 2017 legislative elections, the party contested 60 seats but won none. Party founder and leader Rabindra Mishra lost in Kathmandu to

Nepali Congress The Nepali Congress ( ne, नेपाली कांग्रेस ; abbr. NC) is the largest social democratic political party in Nepal. As per the results of recent local election, ''Nepali Congress'' stands as the single largest party o ...

leader

Prakash Man Singh Prakash Man Singh ( ne, प्रकाश मान सिंह) is a Nepalese politician and a leader of the Nepali Congress. He is the son of political stalwart Ganesh Man Singh. He has also served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister o ...

by a margin of just 818 votes. The party won 212,336 votes under

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

and finished with the sixth highest number of votes in the country. They were unable to cross the three percent threshold to gain seats in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. The party also did not win any seats in the 2017 provincial election under

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

but won three seats to the

Provincial Assembly of Province No. 3 The Provincial Assembly of Bagmati Province also known as the Bagmati Pradesh Sabha, (Nepali: वाग्मती प्रदेश सभा) is a unicameral governing and law making body of Bagmati Province, one of the seven provinces in N ...

under proportional representation after finishing with the fourth highest number of votes with 124,442 votes. The party decided to support

candidate Radhe Shyam Adhikari in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

elections on 6 February 2018. Bibeksheel Sajha Party, along with Naya Shakti Party, abstained from voting in the 2018 presidential and vice-presidential elections.

Split and reformation

The party split on 11 January 2019 when party co-coordinator Ujwal Bahadur Thapa, along with 16 central committee members filed an application to register his old party, Bibeksheel Nepali Dal at the Election Commission. The two parties announced on 20 October 2020 that they were in talks for reunification. The two parties officially announced their reunification on 9 December 2020, twenty-three months after their split. It was also announced that Sajha Party leader

would serve as chairman of the new party and Bibeksheel Nepali chairman Milan Pandey would be the co-ordinator. However, 13 central committee members including vice-chair Ajeeta Rai and office management secretary Sangita Bataju who had opposed the second unification decided not to go with the merge. The group later formed Nepal Bibeksheel Party under the leadership of Karma Tamang.

Electoral performance

Local election

Leadership

Party presidents

, 2017–25 May 2022

Spokesperson

* Sharad Raj Pathak, 2017–present

Presence in provincial assemblies

References

{{Political parties in Nepal Political parties in Nepal Political parties established in 2017 2017 establishments in Nepal