TheNepali Congress (Nepali:नेपाली कांग्रेसNepali pronunciation:[neˈpaliˈkaŋres];abbr.NC),colloquially theCongress Party, or simply theCongress, is asocial democraticpolitical party in Nepal and the largest party in the country.^[13] The party has 870,106 members as of the party's14th general convention in December 2021, making it the largest party by membership in Nepal.^[14][15] In June 2023, the party started online membership since the emergence of youth leaders in vital posts to attract youths to the party.^[16][17][18] The party is led by formerprime minister,Sher Bahadur Deuba since the party's thirteenth general convention in 2016.^[19] The party won 89 seats in the2022 general election and is currently the largest parliamentary group in theHouse of Representatives.^[20]

Nepal Congress नेपाली कांग्रेस Nēpālī kāṅgrēs
Abbreviation	NC
President	Sher Bahadur Deuba
Presidium	Central Working Committee
Vice-president	Purna Bahadur Khadka Dhanraj Gurung
General Secretary	Gagan Thapa Bishwa Prakash Sharma[1]
Spokesperson	Prakash Sharan Mahat[2]
Founder	B. P. Koirala and others
Founded	9 April 1950 (74 years ago) (1950-04-09)
Merger of	National Congress Democratic Congress
Headquarters	B.P. Smriti Bhawan, B.P. Nagar,Lalitpur[3]
Think tank	Policy Research and Training Centre[4]
Student wing	Nepal Student Union
Youth wing	Nepal Tarun Dal
Women's wing	Nepal Woman Association
Labour wing	Nepal Trade Union Congress
Peasant's wing	Nepal Farmers Association[5]
Membership(December 2021)	870,106
Ideology	Social democracy Factions: Democratic socialism[6][7][8] Third Way[9]
Political position	Centre[10] tocentre-left[11]
Regional affiliation	Network of Social Democracy in Asia[12]
International affiliation	Socialist International Progressive Alliance
Colours
ECN Status	National Party(1st largest)
House of Representatives	88 / 275
National Assembly	16 / 59
Provincial Assemblies	176 / 550
Chief Ministers	3 / 7
Mayors/Chairs	333 / 753
Councillors	13,730 / 35,011
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
nepalicongress.org
Politics of Nepal Political parties Elections

There have been seven Nepali Congress prime ministers and the party has led the government fourteen times.^[21]Matrika Prasad Koirala, a founding member of the party was appointed as the first commoner prime minister following the end of the Rana regime in1951.Subarna Shumsher Rana, another founding member of the party was appointed prime minister in 1958. Congress is the only party in Nepal to have been elected with a majority, with the party forming majority governments in1959,1991 and1999 underB.P. Koirala,Girija Prasad Koirala andK.P. Bhattarai respectively with B.P. Koirala becoming the first elected prime minister of the country.^[22] The party also formed coalition governments in 1995 and 1998 withGirija Prasad Koirala andSher Bahadur Deuba as prime ministers. The party emerged as the largest party following the2013 Constituent Assembly elections and led acoalition government underSushil Koirala.^[23] After the promulgation of the constitution in 2015, the party led coalition governments under Deuba in2017 and2021.

The party was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Nepali National Congress and the Nepal Democratic Congress along democratic socialist lines. NC prime ministers led four governments between the fall of theRana dynasty and the start of thePanchayat era, including the first democratically elected government of Nepal, after the1959 general election. Starting in the 1990s, the party followed other mainstream,centre-left social democratic parties in moving closer to thepolitical centre through theThird Way.^[8]

In 1947,Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, published an appeal for a unified struggle of Nepali people against theRana regime. That same year, some Nepalese met inBenaras and formed an organization by the name All Indian Nepali National Congress (Nepali:भारतीय नेपाली राष्ट्रिय कांग्रेस) where anad-hoc committee was established. The initial officers were chairman Devi Prasad Sapkota, vice-president Balchandra Sharma, general secretaryKrishna Prasad Bhattarai, and public minister Gopal Prasad Bhattarai, publicity minister. Its Working Committee included Batuk Prasad Bhattarai, Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, and Narendra Regmi, while its coordinator was Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala.^[24]

Around the same time, Nepalese located inCalcutta formed another organization by the name All Indian Nepali Gorkha Congress (Nepali:अखिल भारतीय गोर्खा कांग्रेस) whose chairman was Dharma Narayan Pradhan. Koirala travelled extensively to places such as Benaras, Calcutta,Darjeeling, Assam,Bhaksu, and Dehradhun, and established contact with the Nepalese there. He met withGanesh Man Singh during the same period. Nepalese representatives from different areas of Nepal and India organized one session in Calcutta. Koirala,Dilli Raman Regmi, Dharma Narayan Pradhan, and Dhan Man Singh Pariyar were present. In the same session, droppingAkhil Bharatiya from its name, the organization was named Nepali National Congress.Tanka Prasad Acharya, who was facing a life-sentence inKathmandu, was made its chairman. The flag was square-shaped with white, blue, and red colors in succession, with the moon and the sun in its center.^[24]

The major four proposals passed by the session were to assist Indians in their independence movement, support Vietnam struggling for freedom against French colonization, ask for the immediate release of imprisoned members of theNepal Praja Parishad, and initiate a non-violence movement in Nepal for the establishment of an accountable ruling system. The organization'smodus operandi was chosen, and attached itself to the civil conscience process in Nepal by establishing Tanka Prasad Acharya as its chairman.^[24]

The Nepali Congress Party was formed by the merger of Nepali National Congress and Nepal Democratic Congress. The Nepali National Congress was founded byBP Koirala inCalcutta,India on 25 January 1947. The Nepal Democratic Congress was founded bySubarna Shumsher Rana in Calcutta on 4 August 1948. The two parties merged on 10 April 1950 to form the Nepali Congress and Koirala became its first president.^[25] The party called for an armed revolution against theRana regime.

During the Bairgania Conference inBairgania,Bihar, on 27 September 1950 the Nepali Congress announced an armed revolution against theRana regime. The president of the party also announced the liquidation of operations in India and that the party would operate only inside Nepal.^[26]

After KingTribhuvan took refuge inside the Indian Embassy on 6 November 1950. The Congress Liberation Army decided to take this opportunity to launch attacks against the regime before the King "left Nepalese soil". Matrika and Bisheshwor Prasad Koirala andSubarna Shamsher Rana flew toPurnia, Bihar. They called the commanders posted at different locations inside Nepal to prepare for armed strikes near the Nepal-India border.^[26]

On 11 November 1950, at midnightBirgunj was attacked, and by 12 November it fell to the Nepali Congress and the first "People's Government" was declared.^[26] The liberation army was able to control most of the eastern hills of Nepal and the town ofTansen inPalpa. After pressure by theIndian government and the mass movement by the Nepali Congress and other political parties, theRana government finally submitted to their demands and King Tribhuvan returned to the throne, replacingKing Gyanendra, who had been crowned king after King Tribhuvan left for India.

After the fall of the Rana government, the Nepali Congress led three of the five governments formed before the elections. Matrika Prasad Koirala, the firstcommoner to become Prime Minister, led the government from 1951 to 1952 and 1953–1955 andSubarna Shamsher Rana led the government from 1958 to 1959. The much delayed elections were finally held inFebruary 1959 andBishweshwar Prasad Koirala became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal after the Nepali Congress won 74 of 109 seats in the parliament.^[27]

Following a royal coup byKing Mahendra in 1960, many leaders of the party, including Koirala, Rana and General SecretaryHora Prasad Joshi, were imprisoned or exiled; others took political refuge in India. Although political parties were prohibited from 1960 to 1989 and remained outlawed during thePanchayat system under the aegis of the Associations and Organizations (Control) Act of 1963, the Nepali Congress persisted. The party placed great emphasis on eliminating the feudal economy and building a basis for socioeconomic development. It proposednationalizing basic industries and institutingprogressive taxes on land, urban housing, salaries, profits and foreign investments. While in exile, the Nepali Congress served as the nucleus around which other opposition groups clustered and instigated popular uprisings in the Hill andTerai regions. During this time, the Nepali Congress refused the overtures of a radical faction of theCommunist Party of Nepal for a tactical alliance.

The Nepali Congress demonstrated endurance, but defection, factionalism, and external pressures weakened it over time. Nevertheless, it continued to be the only organized party to press for democratization. In the1980 government system referendum, it supported themultiparty system in opposition to the panchayat system. The party boycotted the1981 general election and rejected the new government. The death in 1982 of Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala further weakened the party.

After the party boycotted the1986 general election to theRastriya Panchayat, its members were allowed to run in the 1987 Nepalese local elections. In defiance of the demonstration ban, the Nepali Congress organized mass rallies with the communist factions in January 1990 that ultimately triggered the pro-democracy movement.

After theJana Andolan I, party presidentKrishna Prasad Bhattarai was invited to form an interim coalition government. In the1991 general election, the Nepali Congress won 110 of 205 seats but Bhattarai lost his seat and yielded the position of prime minister toGirija Prasad Koirala who held his seat until 1994.^[28]

During the1994 general election, the Nepali Congress lost its majority toCommunist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist). The CPN (UML) lacked a majority and formed a minority government. After 46 parliamentarians from the CPN (UML) quit to form theCommunist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist), the Nepali Congress formed their own government with theRastriya Prajatantra Party andNepal Sadbhawana Party. After CPN (UML) offeredLokendra Bahadur Chand the position of prime minister, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party led a government with the CPN (UML). Internal problems within the Rastriya Prajatantra Party caused one faction led bySurya Bahadur Thapa to lead a government with Nepali Congress and Nepal Sadbhawana Party.^[27][28]

Girija Prasad Koirala again became the Prime Minister in April 1998, leading a Congress minority government after Rastriya Prajatantra and Nepal Sadbhawana quit the government. Eventually, they got support from the CPN (ML) and after their withdrawal the CPN (UML) and Nepal Sadbhawana.^[27][28]

During the1999 general election, Girija Prasad Koirala stepped aside in favour of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who returned as Prime Minister when the Nepali Congress won 111 out of 205 House seats. Bhattarai resigned as prime minister on 16 March 2000 after conflicts between himself and supporters of Girija Prasad Koirala. In the party's first open leadership election, the parliamentarians selected Girija Prasad Koirala as their leader by 69-43 votes overSher Bahadur Deuba. Accordingly, King Birendra designated Girija Prasad Koirala as prime minister on 20 March.^[27][28]

On 8 August 2000, Koirala dismissed the Minister of Water Resources,Khum Bahadur Khadka, for calling for Koirala's resignation. Although Koirala beat back another challenge by Deuba's supporters at a party convention in January 2001, he resigned as Prime Minister on 19 July. Deuba then defeated Secretary GeneralSushil Koirala, 72–40, for the party leadership and was designated prime minister by the king.^[27][28]

In May 2002, the party's disciplinary committee expelled Deuba for failing to consult the party before seeking a parliamentary extension of the country'sstate of emergency. Deuba's supporters then expelled Koirala at a general convention in June. Deuba registered his faction as theNepali Congress (Democratic),^[29] following a decision by the Election Commission that the Koirala faction held ownership of the nameNepali Congress, taking 40 of the party's lower house representatives with him.^[28]

In the months following the King's October 2002 decisions to dissolve the House of Representatives and replace Prime Minister Deuba with Rastriya Prajatantra'sLokendra Bahadur Chand, the party joined the CPN (UML) and other, smaller parties in challenging the constitutionality of the moves. The party played a significant role in the formation of theSeven Party Alliance (SPA), which launched a series of street protests against the King's regression. The Seven Party Alliance had earlier avoided theCommunist Party of Nepal (Maoist) CPN-M and their violent methods, signed a 12-point understanding in Delhi in November 2005. The agreement contained three key commitmentsm, namely that the SPA endorsed CPN-M's fundamental demand for elections to aconstituent assembly; the Maoists reciprocated with an assurance that they accepted amulti-party system, which was the SPA's prime concern. The SPA and the Maoists agreed to launch a peaceful mass movement against the monarchy.^[27]

On 26 April 2006, the king reinstated the dissolved parliament and formed a small government under the premiership of Girija Prasad Koirala, the president of the Nepali Congress. In November 2006, the government and the CPN-M signed aComprehensive Peace Accord in India and theNepalese Civil War formally ended.^[28]

On 24 September 2007, the Nepali Congress (Democratic) and Nepali Congress unified as a single party with the2008 Constituent Assembly election looming. Following the firstMadhesh movement, former deputy speaker and senior leader of the partyMahantha Thakur, who had led a committee that held talks with theMadheshi Jana Adhikar Forum, broke away and formed theTerai Madhesh Loktantrik Party with otherMadheshi leaders.^[30][31]Girija Prasad Koirala remained president of the newly unified party. The party placed second with 110 out of 575 elected seats in theConstituent Assembly election, winning only half as many seats as CPN-M.^[28]

The party joined the coalition government headed byMadhav Kumar Nepal in May 2009. Girija Prasad Koirala angered some in the party by nominating his daughterSujata Koirala to be Foreign Minister. In June, in a contested election for leader of the party's parliamentary group,Ram Chandra Poudel defeated Deuba.^[28] The12th General Convention of the Nepali Congress was held inKathmandu from 17 to 21 September 2010. The convention electedSushil Koirala as the party president.^[32]

After theConstituent Assembly of Nepal was dissolved by Prime MinisterBaburam Bhattarai after failure to draft a new constitution before the deadline.^[33] In the resulting2013 Constituent Assembly election, the party emerged as the largest party winning 196 of the 575 elected seats.^[34] Along with CPN (UML), under the leadership ofSushil Koirala, they formed a new coalition government.^[35] The newConstitution of Nepal was promulgated under his leadership on 20 September 2015.^[36]

Sushil Koirala resigned as prime minister on 10 October 2015 after losing support from CPN (UML).^[37] Nepali Congress joined the government again in August 2016 under the leadership ofBimlendra Nidhi, after backingPushpa Kamal Dahal to become prime minister.^[38] According to their agreement, Dahal resigned on 24 May 2017^[39] paving the way for Deuba to become prime minister for a fourth time on 6 June 2017.^[39]

On 22 April 2017, theAkhanda Nepal Party led byKumar Kahadka joined the Nepali Congress ahead of the2017 local elections.^[40][41] Nepali Congress won 11,456 seats including 266 mayoral or chairman positions. The party also won mayor posts inLalitpur andBiratnagar.^[42][43] Ahead of the2017 general andprovincial elections,Nepal Loktantrik Forum led by former Nepali Congress leader,Bijay Kumar Gachhadar merged into the party.^[44] Similarly, a group fromFederal Socialist Forum, Nepal led by MPAbhishek Pratap Shah, a group fromCPN (UML) led by MPMohan Singh Rathore and Rabin Chaudhary, a goroup fromRastriya Janata Party Nepal led by MP Jangi Lal Ray, a group fromCPN (Maoist Centre) led by former Minister and MP Sambhu Lal Shrestha joined the party ahead of the2017 election.^{[45][46][47][48]}

The party won 63 seats to theHouse of Representatives becoming the second largest party.^[49] The party could win only 23 seats under first past the post and many influential leaders includingRam Chandra Paudel,Ram Sharan Mahat,Bimalendra Nidhi, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, andArjun Narsingh KC lost in their constituencies.^[50][51] The party won 113 seats inprovincial assemblies and became the largest opposition insix out of seven provinces. The party won 13 seats in the2018 National Assembly election.^[52] After theNational Assembly election, Deuba resigned as prime minister on 15 February 2018, paving the way for a new government under CPN (UML).^[53] The party's under performance in the election caused many elements inside the party to call for Deuba's resignation.^[54]Prakash Man Singh stood against Deuba for the election of the parliamentary party leader, but Deuba won the vote 44–19.^[55][56][57]

Nepali Congress was back to centre of Nepalese politics since the political crisis 2020 which it had lost after deciding from the position of single largest party of nation. This happened after split inNepal Communist Party andJanata Samajbadi Party due to personal interest and difference in ideology of core leaders.^[58][59]

The internal crisis led to dissolution of parliament (both house of representative and lower house of parliament) by Khadga Prasad Oli twice within six months. It was approved by the president butSupreme court denied the legality of such decision byOli. After the supreme court's historic decision, both the parliaments were reinstated.^[60][61]

After facing the vote for confidence in parliament, Oli lost the vote for confidence.^[62][63] Again he dissolved the parliament on 22 May 2021 and it was approved by president unanimously against the signatures submitted claiming majority toNepali Congress.^[64] Still, 146 sitting members ofHOR filed a case in supreme court against the decision and approval of president. Previously, they had submitted majority signatures to president asking to appointSher Bahadur Deuba as the next prime-minister of Nepal. On 12 July 2021, the Supreme Court stated the decision of parliament dissolution was unlawful.^[65] Similarly, it ordered the appointment Deuba as the nextPrime Minister of Nepal citing article 76(5) of theConstitution of Nepal within 28 hours.^[66] It stated that the decision made by the president was against the norms of the constitution.^[67] On 13 July 2021, PresidentBidya Devi Bhandari appointedSher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister without including any article of Constitution and stating as per the order of Court. This created cold dispute and people alleged President Bhandari of forgetting her limits and being tilted toex-PM Oli.^[68] After Deuba declined to take the oath as per the appointment letter, the letter was changed and stated that Deuba was made PM in accordance with article 76(5), marking Deuba's fifth term as PM.

This process of vote of confidence was keenly watched by people from within and outside the country. On 18 July 2021,Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of Nepal and Nepali Congress leaderGyanendra Bahadur Karki registered a proposal for vote of confidence in the first meeting of reinstatedHouse of Representatives. Here,CPN(UML) got divided when only 69% MP from UML voted against Deuba.People's Socialist Party, Nepal remained united in voting for the Deuba despite ongoing process of party division.^[69] Hence, the government got vote of confidence with no party purely as opposition, a first in the history of Nepal.

Out of total 249 present for the vote, 165 voted for Deuba while 1 remained undecided.^[70] This includes 83 fromCPN (UML) who voted against Deuba. 37 of them were either absent or voted in favour of Deuba. 22 MPs from Madhav Nepal faction and some rebel from Oli faction from CPN (UML) voted for Deuba.^[71] This was a historic win with nearly 66.3% of votes of total present in parliament.^[72] It was totally unexpected with just 61 voters from Nepali Congress. It was a big set back to Oli when 38 CPN (UML) MPs did not vote against Deuba. This was seen as a result of Oli's "autocratic" rule and dissolution of the house twice.^[73]

In addition to this, Nepali Congress joined the government of Karnali on 6 June with an agreement of a roatational government.^[74] Within a week, Congress also joined the Province No. 2 government, as a result of aninternal split in PSPN. Similarly, on 12 June Congress formed a coalition governmentGandaki under its own leadership.^[75] On 12 August, Congress joined a coalition government in Lumbini formed under the leadership ofCPN (Maoist Centre), with a provision of rotational government to be formed in the next few months.^[76] On 3 November 2021, Nepali Congress formed Karnali government under its own leadership sworningJeevan Bahadur Shahi as chief minister of the province.^[77]From 13 to 15 December 2021, Nepali Congress conducted its14th general convention in the presence of 850,000 active members and nearly 5,000 candidates, re-electingSher Bahadur Deuba as party president in the second round.^[78] The party elected Purna Bahadur Khadka andDhanraj Gurung vice-presidents of the party. Popular youth leadersGagan Thapa andBishwa Prakash Sharma were elected to the executive post of general secretary of the party.^[79][80]

On 13 May 2022, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government heldlocal level elections, in which the ruling Nepali Congress swept the polls winning the posts of chiefs in 329 local units out of a total of 753, up from 266 in the last local elections held in 2017.^[81][82] The party secured wins in two metropolitan cities,Lalitpur andBiratnagar, as well as wins in four sub-metropolitan cities ofButwal,Nepalgunj,Janakpur andItahari. The NC secured the highest vote among contesting parties in the elections.

On 20 November 2022, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government heldgeneral elections, in which the ruling Nepali Congress emerged as the single largest party at both national and provincial level winning as much as 57 seats of 90 seats it had contested.^{[citation needed]}

The party was founded on the principle ofdemocracy andsocialism. In 1956, the party adopteddemocratic socialism as its ideology for socio-economic transformation.^[8] Its foreign policy orientation was tononalignment andgood relations with India.^[83] It initially favoured mainstream social democratic policies, but in the late 20th century, began moving closer to thepolitical centre, starting in the 1990s, abandoning some of its previous social democratic policies in favour of those similar to theThird Way.^[9]

The National Convention remains the supreme body of Nepali Congress and it is organized every four years by the party's Central Committee. The national convention elects the party portfolios including the party chair, two deputy chairs, two general secretaries each along with eight deputy general secretaries from different cluster. It also elects central committee members. The convention also discusses and approves political documents, organizational proposals and amendments to the party constitution. The party has also provision for Central Working committee.^[84]

Party committees exist at theprovincial,district, constituency, local and ward level. All the level of committee holds a convention every four years. The party has distributed a number of rights at different levels per the current Constitution of Nepal. Nepali Congress stands as the only party to have conducted conventions at all levels since the promulgation of current constitution of Nepal. The convention elects the leadership and members of the committee which is the supreme decision making body in between conventions.^[84]

According to the website of Nepali Congress, the following are its sister organizations.^[98]

• Nepal Student Union (नेपाल विद्यार्थी संघ)
• Nepal Tarun Dal (नेपाल तरुण दल)
• Nepal Democratic Fighter Society (नेपाल प्रजातान्त्रिक सेनानी समाज)
• Nepal Farmers Association (नेपाल किसान संघ)
• Nepal Adivasi Janajati Sangh (नेपाल आदिवासी जनजाति संघ)
• National Democratic Handicapped Association (राष्ट्रिय प्रजातान्त्रिक अपाङ्ग संघ)
• Nepal Tamang Association (नेपाल तामाङ संघ)
• Nepal Thakur Society (नेपाल ठाकुर समाज)
• Nepal Woman Association (नेपाल महिला संघ)
• Nepal Dalit Sangh (नेपाल दलित संघ)
• Nepal Ex Army Association (नेपाल भूतपूर्व सैनिक संघ)
• Nepal Press Union (नेपाल प्रेस युनियन)
• Nepal Civil Service Employees' Union (नेपाल निजामती कर्मचारी युनियन)
• Nepal Cultural Association (नेपाल सांस्कृतिक संघ)
• Nepal Teachers Association (नेपाल शिक्षक संघ)
• Nepal Trade Union Congress (नेपाल ट्रेड युनियन कांग्रेस)
• Nepal Prajatantra Senani Sangh (नेपाल प्रजातान्त्रिक सेनानी संघ)
• Nepal Indigenous Nationality Association (नेपाल आदिवासी जनजाती संघ )

• Biratnagar jute mill strike
• Congress Mukti Sena

• Official website
• Info on the party from FES