Kathmandu, February 26 Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa said on Thursday that the next five years would be a “golden period of change” for the country, which goes to the polls on March 5.
Addressing an election rally in Surkhet, the candidate for Prime Minister of the Nepali Congress (NC), said that the party would strive to bring about change in the country, making the five-year period between 2026 and 2031 the foundation for change.
“The election on March 5 is an opportunity to bring about change in the country. The Congress will never let this opportunity go to waste,” Thapa said.
Stating that the Gen Z movement of September 8 and 9 should not be forgotten, he said that the NC supported the current Sushila Karki government in bringing the Constitution back on track through the election.
He said that the NC would work to ensure that Nepalis get jobs in their own country and that no one would have to spend a large amount on treatment.
Thapa admitted that the frequent changes in ruling coalitions and governments in the past had failed to speed up development and address the aspirations of the people.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister and Coordinator of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ said that in the upcoming election, there would be “a competition between forces, one extremist and the other progressive nationalist.”
Addressing a press conference at the party office in Kathmandu, he said, "Basically, three ideologies are in contention — two extremist and one nationalist.”
"By 'two extremist attitudes,' I mean those who caused the murder on September 8 and have not even taken moral responsibility for that, and the other one is the force that caused the destruction on September 9," he said.
"There is also a third attitude which denounced both types of extremism and took a nationalist, progressive stand," he said. "We, the NCP, represent the nationalist force," Prachanda added.
The mass Gen Z demonstrations erupted on September 8 and 9, resulting in at least 77 deaths.
Angry over the deaths, protesters set fire to and vandalized key government buildings, including the Parliament, the Prime Minister's Office, and the residence of the Supreme Court, as well as administrative offices and police posts across Nepal.
After K P Sharma Oli, the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), was forced to resign, President Ramchandra Paudel appointed Karki as the caretaker Prime Minister on September 12.
Prachanda said that the incident of killing protesters was a result of the arrogance of the then ruling parties, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML.
Dismissing rumors about electoral alliances that have surfaced on social media, the former Prime Minister said that the NCP has not formed any electoral alliance with any party and will not do so.
Prachanda also claimed that the NCP will emerge as the largest political party after the election.
Nepal is set to hold the House of Representatives elections on March 5, the first since last year’s deadly Gen-Z protests that toppled the Oli-led coalition government.
