The dispute between Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Chairman Rajendra Lingden and General Secretary Dhawal Shamsher Rana has reached a peak. The ‘ultimatum’ given by RPP General Secretary Rana to Chairman Lingden on 12 April to set a date for holding a general convention within mid-June 2026 is an example of that peak.

The deadline of the ultimatum given by Rana, who even organized a gathering on April 12 with the aim of increasing pressure on Lingden, expires on April 20 April.

RPP leader Sagun Lawati says, “The central committee had decided before the election that if elections were not held, the party’s general convention would be held by mid-April 2026, and if held, by mid-June 2026. There had been an agreement to proceed by making an impartial person the convener for the general convention. But the chairperson has been procrastinating on implementing the decision.”

Lawati says that if the chairperson does not set a date for the general convention by April 18, leaders close to Rana plan to discuss and take further steps. Senior vice-chairperson Bikram Pande and secretary generals Kunti Shahi and Prahlad Sah have been supporting Rana. Former chairperson of the Guidance Committee Prakash Chandra Lohani has also been backing Rana.

The Rana faction understands that the Lingden faction, by talking about conducting an election review from the municipality level, is trying to postpone the general convention and extend its own tenure.

Some leaders close to Rana have also suggested founding a new party. In this connection, preparations had even begun to open a party together with Durga Prasai. However, Rana has stepped back from that.

Lending weight to the allegations of Rana-faction leaders, RPP Chairman Lingden is nonetheless pressing ahead with the election review. In that connection, he has called review meetings in all seven provinces. He has also called a meeting of the central executive committee on 29 April 2026.

Amid such preparations by the chairperson, RPP spokesperson Mohan Shrestha says there is no possibility of a date being set for a general convention by mid-June. He says, “There is no immediate possibility of setting a date for the general convention. On April 29, the executive committee will convene the central committee meeting, and it is the central committee meeting that will set the date for the general convention.”

There is a provision that general conventions must be held in at least 51 percent of districts before the RPP’s national general convention. Of 77 districts, conventions have been held in only 24 so far. Even Senior Vice-chairman Pande’s home district Chitwan and General Secretary General Rana’s home district Banke have not had party conventions.

Spokesperson Shrestha also argues that an election review must happen in the party first. The Lingden faction accuses Rana and Pande, who had won elections in 2022, of undermining the leadership by not contesting this time. Chairperson Lingden has been defeated this time from Jhapa-3, the constituency where he had won elections twice before.

A demand is also being raised within the RPP that Chairman Lingden must take responsibility for the party’s weak performance in the election. This time, the RPP won only one seat in the first-past-the-post category in the House of Representatives and received four lawmakers through proportional representation. With this, the RPP sits at the bottom of the House of Representatives among the six national parties.

In the previous House of Representatives, the RPP had 14 lawmakers — seven from first-past-the-post and seven from proportional.

Lingden and Rana, who had stood united against then chairperson Kamal Thapa at the general convention held on December 1-3, 2021, have now ended up on two different sides. The bitterness between the two began after Lingden left Rana out when joining the government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal in January 2023. At that time, Rana had wanted to become Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, but Lingden did not give Rana the opportunity.

Division in the RPP that involves former Panchayat-era leaders trying to preserve rightist ideology is nothing new. On the very same day, 29 May 1990, former Panchayat leaders formed two separate parties named the RPP (Chand) and the RPP (Thapa), led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand and Surya Bahadur Thapa respectively.

The continuous series of splits and unions among royalist parties and groups, including the RPP, the RPP Nepal, Keshar Bahadur Bista’s Rastriya Shakti Nepal, Jagman Gurung’s Nepal Pragyan Manch, Durga Prasai’s Rastra, Rastriyata, Dharma, Sanskriti ra Nagrik Bachau Maha-abhiyan Nepal, the World Hindu Federation chaired by Asmita Bhandari, ATF (Anytime Force) led by Santosh Rajawadi, Shiv Sena Nepal chaired by Anil Basnet, Nagrik Bachau Mahasangram led by Rama Singh, and Rashtra Rakshaartha Ekta Abhiyan led by Mira Rana — is itself testimony to this fact.