Former Congress Minister Kumar Khadka to Join Rastriya Swatantra Party

Following the release of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairman Rabi Lamichhane from jail, the party has entered a heightened election mode. 

Along with Lamichhane’s release, other political leaders from various parties are also joining RSP. Amid this, former Congress minister Kumar Khadka is set to join the Rastriya Swatantra Party. He will formally enter the party during a program in Pokhara on Saturday, Poush 19.

Khadka, who was also a leader of the Nepali Congress, had become politically inactive after the Congress Central Discipline Committee expelled him from the party, even stripping him of ordinary membership. After the party did not revoke the disciplinary action against him, he chose to join RSP. 

Having spent a long time in Congress politics, Khadka will officially join RSP at the event in Pokhara on Poush 19. Khadka initially became involved in politics through the Nepal Students’ Union in Kaski and later studied in the United Kingdom.

After completing his studies and returning to Nepal, Khadka positioned himself against the ethnic-identity-based federalism promoted by the then Maoists. Opposing the ethnic-state concept, he helped form the Chhetri community organization. In 2070 B.S., he formed the Akhand Nepal Party to contest the Second Constituent Assembly elections, where his party won one seat through proportional representation.

At that time, Khadka also served as Minister for Women, Children, and Senior Citizens. In the 2074 B.S. provincial assembly elections, he successfully became a proportional representative member of the Gandaki Province Assembly on behalf of the Nepali Congress. At that time, the Communist Party of Nepal had a single-party government at the center as well as in all seven provinces. In Gandaki Province, the government was led by UML leader Prithvi Subba Gurung.

However, after the CPN split and falling into the minority, Prithvi Subba resigned as Chief Minister. Subsequently, a new government was formed under Nepali Congress leader Krishna Chandra Pokharel, with Khadka regarded as the key facilitator of this government. He served as a minister in this government.

As the government was formed just before the elections, allegations started emerging within the party that Khadka had allocated significant budgets to his electoral constituency. 

Moreover, he was accused of not cooperating with his own government and playing a role in defeating the party’s candidate, Bindu Thapa. Consequently, Chief Minister Pokharel dismissed Thapa from his ministerial post.