The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

To Rebuild the Nepali Congress, Gagan Thapa Must First Reform It

Recently re-elected president of the Nepali Congress, Thapa vowed to end the culture of nepotism and groupism in the party and to open it to a new generation of leaders.

Gagan Thapa addresses the Nepali Congress party’s 15th general convention in Kathmandu, Nepal, Oct. 5, 2026.

Among the most charismatic political leaders of his generation, Gagan Thapa was long talked of as a prime minister-in-waiting. As he rose up the ranks of the Nepali Congress — the social democratic party that has been the country’s dominant political force for most of the post-1990 period — this advocate of value-based politics with unmatched oratory skills seemed destined to lead his party and country.

Then came the Gen Z movement. In just two days of protests in September 2025, the movement upended the old political order. K.P. Oli, the communist prime minister at the time, had to run for his life. The top Congress leader, Sher Bahadur Deuba, was beaten black and blue. Along with the homes of hundreds of other political leaders, Thapa’s Kathmandu home was torched and he too had to go into hiding.

The Gen Z movement would also act as a catalyst for change in the Congress. In its aftermath, a set of second-generation leaders under Thapa finally dared to revolt and wrest party leadership away from Deuba, then age 79. Yet most Nepalis saw this as too little, too late, and the Congress under Thapa performed dismally in the first post-uprising national polls held in March 2026.

Today, the Congress is a diminished force, occupying just 38 seats in the 275-member lower House. Meanwhile, with 182 seats, the new Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which took ownership of the Gen Z movement, garnered a near two-thirds majority.

When the Congress was trounced in the March 2026 polls, old party leaders put the blame for the defeat on Thapa and his “mistimed” revolt that was orchestrated on the eve of the March elections. But the RSP was riding a wave of discontent with the established political parties, and Congress under its old leadership would arguably have fared even worse in the elections.

Now Thapa, 50, has been re-elected party president by its just-concluded general convention. While asking for votes, he vowed to end the culture of nepotism and groupism in the party and to open the outfit to a new generation of leaders.

His other proposals include a system of primaries to pick the party’s electoral candidates and amending the constitution charter to limit any individual to two terms as prime minister. Thapa’s proposed reforms, if implemented, could open up new democratic space, both in the party and in the national polity.

This is in sharp contrast to the centralizing and power-hoarding tendencies of Sher Bahadur Deuba, the erstwhile party president, who did much to discredit the image of a party that was long associated with principled leaders........

© The Diplomat