The Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, Nepal (Nepali: लोकतान्त्रिक समाजवादी पार्टी, lit. 'Democratic Socialist Party') is the tenth largest political party in Nepal. The party has a significant presence in Madhesh Province and Lumbini Province of Nepal. The party's election symbol is a bicycle.[4]
The party follows the norms of social democracy, identity and Madhesi rights.[11]
Ideologically, the party has been close to the Nepali Congress, while majority of its leaders have been part of Congress at different points in time, especially before the 2006 Madhesh Movement.[11] Party president Mahantha Thakur and senior leader Sharat Singh Bhandari were popular Congress men at a time. Thakur himself was treasurer and head of party disciplinary department before he left the Nepali Congress party.[12] They were elected several times to the House of Representatives on the party ticket.[13]
The President of Nepal issued the second ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act on 18 August 2021.[14][15] This opened the way to formalize the splits inside the dispute between two factions of Janata Samajbadi Party, Nepal. The faction of party led by Mahantha Thakur, which had a long dispute with party chairman Upendra Yadav registered their party with the Election Commission.[16] At the time of the launch, the party claimed to have 13 members in the two national houses of parliament.[17][18]
The party emerged as fourth largest party of Madhesh province winning 16 local levels from among 753 local levels even standing alone in the elections.[8]Nepali Congress emerged as single largest party of Madhesh province for second consecutive term, CPN (UML) emerged as second and while Janta Samajbadi was limited to third position.[20]
First general election
In the mid of March, the party started talks with the Nepali Congress for a possible long term alliance between the two parties. Party chairman revealed this in a party meet in Janakpur on 22 March 2022.[21] The party formed a committee for bilateral talks with Nepali Congress consisting Sharbendra Nath Shukla and Laxman Lal Karna in which party senior leader Sharat Singh Bhandari played vital role as mediator.[21]
Bhandari had stood long for a Loktantrik alliance between democratic parties of Nepal. Both Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Nepali Congress have some common ideologies including social democracy, democratic socialism.[22] The party won 9 seats in Madhesh province while it won 3 seats in Lumbini province. However, in the general election it was limited to 4 seats only after being unable to cross 3% threshold due to wave of newly formed parties.[23][24][25]
^ abपाठ, भुवन शर्मा काठमाडौँ ३ भाद्र २०७८ ३ मिनेट. "ठाकुरको अध्यक्षतामा जसपा लोकतान्त्रिक". nagariknews.nagariknetwork.com (in Nepali). Retrieved 19 August 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
