KATHMANDU: CPN (UML) General Secretary Shankar Pokharel has said that linking the recent Left defeat in India’s Kerala state with claims that Nepal’s communist movement is in crisis is misleading.

Writing on social media, Pokharel argued that the future of Nepal’s Left movement will not be determined by any single election result, but by its forward-looking agenda, public engagement, and activities in the interest of the nation.

He further said that the recent defeat should not be seen as the failure of the Left alone, but as a setback for Nepal’s broader democratic forces.

“There is a growing analysis linking the Left defeat in Kerala with claims that Nepal’s Left movement is in crisis,” he wrote, adding that Kerala has a history of alternating power between parties in almost every election, except for the previous one where the Left alliance retained power.

Pokharel emphasized that the key issue for Nepal’s democratic forces is to seriously review the reasons for electoral setbacks and prepare a renewed plan for strengthening democracy.

He also stated that in times of crisis and challenge, despair and retreat are paths of opportunists and cowards, while revolutionaries confront difficulties and turn adversity into opportunity.