The poll outcome was even worse for CPN (Maoist Center). The party that had won 36 FPTP seats in 2017 elections could not even eke out half the number this time. Its strength also took a hit under the PR vote count.
After the 2017 elections, the UML and Maoist together had 174 seats in the 275-member House of Representative. The combined seats won by all the communist parties, including the CPN (Unified Socialist) and Rastriya Janamorcha, cannot even form a simple majority this time. Political analyst Puranjan Acharya says big communist parties like the UML and Maoist Center lost a substantial number of votes this time due to party splits and intra-party betrayal. “Other reasons behind their downward spiral is their failure to deliver when they were in power after the 2017 polls.” Although Nepali Congress fared better to become the largest party, there is no reason to rejoice. It won 57 FPTP seats (34 more than last time) but dropped the PR numbers winning only 32 seats against 40 in 2017. Analyst Chandra Dev Bhatta says the rise of the middle-class is also a major reason behind the fall of communist parties in Nepal. “When they were in power, they failed to convert their high-sounding rhetoric into a reality,” he says. “The decline of communist forces is a global phenomenon. The power of the red flag is fading.” The only parties to get the last laugh were the newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party and the Hindu right-wing Rastriya Prajatantra Party. They drew votes from all three major parties—NC, UML and Maoists. They will have a critical role in the government formation process.
