Gagan Thapa Takes Oath as Nepali Congress President

Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa has taken the oath of office and secrecy at the party central office in Sanepa, Online Khabar and Ratopati reported on Saturday.

The ceremony was set for 2 p.m. on Saturday and coincided with Phulpati, the seventh day of Dashain, the Daily Nepal Times reported. Acting chief secretary Krishna Prasad Dulal said leaders, cadres and media in the Kathmandu Valley were invited to attend.

The party and the job he now holds

The Nepali Congress is one of the oldest and largest political parties in Nepal, and its president is the party's top organisational post. The president leads the central committee, directs the party's work across the country, and speaks for the party on its direction between elections. Thapa has been one of the party's best known leaders for years, a former minister who has sat in parliament and built a public profile well beyond the party's own ranks.

The president is chosen at the party's general convention, its biggest gathering, where delegates elect the president and the central committee together. Winning that vote is what put Thapa in the Sanepa office on Saturday to take the oath, the formal step that turns the convention result into the working leadership of the party.

A heavy mandate from the convention

Thapa won the presidency at the party 15th general convention with 6,584 votes, defeating Shyam Krishna Khadgi, who received 375 votes, the Kathmandu Post reported. The margin was overwhelming: Thapa took more than 17 votes for every one cast for his rival, and over 94 percent of the votes the two candidates shared between them. A total of 231 members were elected to the party central committee through the convention, the Daily Nepal Times reported.

A mandate of that size gives Thapa a free hand inside the party. There was no close contest to heal after, and the central committee elected alongside him starts work under a president the delegates backed almost unanimously among the choices on the ballot.

Sworn in during Dashain, with the rest to follow

The timing made the ceremony unusual. Dashain is Nepal's biggest festival, and Phulpati, its seventh day, is a public occasion in its own right, when much of the country is travelling or with family. Holding the oath on that day kept the ceremony small and quick, with the bigger party gathering saved for later.

The swearing in for the other office bearers and central committee members will be held after Dashain, the Daily Nepal Times reported. Only after that second ceremony will the full new leadership team be formally in place. Thapa now leads the party into its next round of organisation work with that post festival ceremony still to come, and his first task is the party machinery itself: a central committee of 231 elected members to organise, office bearers to seat, and a party to run day to day from Sanepa.