A proposal by the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) to abolish Nepal’s provincial assemblies has triggered a strong backlash from Madhesh-based parties, who warn the move would dismantle the federal structure won through years of struggle in the Tarai. The parties are demanding a formal clarification from both the ruling RSP and the government.
Three parties that spearheaded the federalism movement, the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (JSP-N), the Janamat Party and the Nagarik Unmukti Party, say they support restructuring provinces in principle, but insist that scrapping the assemblies would hollow out federalism itself. The distinction matters: federalism was one of the central demands of the Madhesh, Tharu and Janajati movements, and the 2015 constitution enshrined a three-tier system of federal, provincial and local governments as a hard-won compromise after those uprisings.
JSP-N chair Upendra Yadav said any move against the federal democratic republic, the provincial system and inclusion would be resisted, stressing that federalism “was achieved through the sacrifice of hundreds of Madhesi people” and cannot exist without provincial assemblies. He argued the RSP convention proposal does not represent the government’s position, and that only an official government decision would carry weight. Janamat chair CK Raut went further, calling it “political dishonesty” for the RSP to advance a proposal that contradicts remarks Prime Minister Balendra Shah made at a January 20 election rally in Janakpur, where Shah said provinces should be empowered rather than forced to come to Kathmandu to seek their rights. Nagarik Unmukti patron Resham Chaudhary said assemblies could instead be made leaner and more effective by reducing the number of members, rather than abolished outright.
The controversy exposes fault lines within the RSP itself. At the party’s recently concluded convention, vice-chair Swarnim Wagle presented a sweeping reform document, endorsed by the general convention, that included a directly elected prime minister, a bar on lawmakers becoming ministers, non-partisan local bodies, a one-third reduction in local units, and the abolition of provincial assemblies. Yet chair Rabi Lamichhane’s own political report spoke only of “restructuring” provincial assemblies and governments, not abolishing them, and General Secretary Bipin Acharya said the chair’s document should be treated as the party’s final line. Laxman Lal Karna, a member of the 2015 constitution drafting committee, said he would raise the matter with the government’s constitutional amendment task force, warning that the fundamental principles in the constitution’s preamble should not be altered. With that task force already weighing a concept paper on amendments, the fight over the provinces is likely to shape Nepal’s next constitutional debate.
