The Rastriya Swatantra Party (, RSP; , NIP) is a

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

political party in Nepal. The party was running as a coalition partner in Prachanda-led government with four cabinet ministries from 6 March 2024 to 12 July 2024. Previously, it remained as a junior ally in Prachanda-led government from 26 December 2022 until 5 February 2023. The party was announced by

Rabi Lamichhane Rabi Lamichhane (; is a Nepalese politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal. He has also been serving as the president of the Rastriya Swatantra Party since 2022. An ex-journalist, Lamichhane became a member of ...

in June 2022 and registered with the

Election Commission of Nepal The Election Commission, Nepal (; ''Nirvācana āyōg, Nēpāl'') is a constitutional body responsible for conducting and monitoring elections, as well as registering parties and candidates and reporting election outcomes, in Nepal. It was born o ...

on 1 July 2022, ahead of the

2022 Nepalese general election General elections were held in Nepal on 20 November 2022 to elect the 275 members of the House of Representatives (Nepal), House of Representatives. There were two ballots in the election; one to elect 165 members from single-member constituenc ...

. The RSP is currently the fourth-largest national party in Nepal following the 2022 election.

History

On 16 June 2022,

resigned as managing director of Galaxy 4K television and announced that he would be contesting in the 2022 general elections for a seat at the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. On 21 June 2022, he announced the formation of Rastriya Swatantra Party along with a 21-member central committee. The party was formally registered in the

Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

on 1 July 2022 with Rabi Lamichhane as the founding president and a bell inside a circle as its election symbol. The party fielded

FPTP First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

candidates in 131 constituencies and submitted a closed list of prospective 107 PR lawmakers for seats of House of Representatives amidst the 2022 general elections. The party did not field any candidates for provincial assemblies. The party selected candidates through

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

s. While the party emerged as the fourth-largest party in the

, it secured victory in seven

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of which four were in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

, one in Lalitpur and two in

Chitwan Chitwan District (, , ) is one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal, and takes up the southwestern corner of Bagmati Province. Bharatpur, largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu, is its administrative centre. It covers , and in 2011 had a popul ...

. It received 10.70% of the

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

vote and became one of the seven national parties in the

Federal Parliament The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch of Australia (represented by the governor ...

. The party was allotted with 13 seats through the

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

system, bringing their total parliamentary strength in the House of Representatives to 20.

Organization

The party had announced that it would have no

sister organization A sister organization is an agency or body which is nearly or completely dependent upon another organization to exist. Sister organizations may exist in several different fields from business, government, law enforcement, and within the military. ...

s and only have members, not cadres. It had also announced that

s would be held to select candidates for elections from the party.

Ideology

The party supports constitutional socialism,

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which Citizenship, citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their ...

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

and

political freedom Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?", ''Between Past and ...

. The party has been described as

by different members within the party.

Ministry responsible

Under Dahal Cabinet

From 6 March 2024 to 12 July 2024

From 17 January 2023 to 5 February 2023

Policy platform

Natural order of the economy

The party endorses a " capitalistic" economy policy with individual rights. Industrial and commercial activities are off-limits to the government, which cannot interfere with economic relations between individuals, groups, classes, or entire nations. The party supports the idea that economic freedom will drive the economy to the prosperity and so does the planning and interference by the government disrupt the economy and have adverse effects.

Electoral reform

It also supports the introduction of

recall election A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of office has ended. Recalls ...

s, the right to reject and a provision for

absentee ballot Absentee or The Absentee may refer to: * Absentee (band), a British band * The Absentee, a novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1812 in ''Tales of Fashionable Life'' * ''The Absentee'' (1915 film), a 1915 American silent film directed by Christy ...

s. The party also supports a directly elected

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and directly elected chief ministers for the seven provinces of Nepal. The party in its manifesto for the 2022 elections also supported the idea of a

non-partisan Nonpartisanship, also known as nonpartisanism, is a lack of affiliation with a political party and a lack of political bias. While an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., ...

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

elected by an expanded electoral college which would incorporate elected representatives from ward chairs to federal lawmakers and also touted the idea of the chairman of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

acting as the de facto vice-president. The party also seeks to end political appointments in constitutional bodies and has called for the Constitutional Council to be scrapped and for appointments to constitutional bodies be recommended by the National Assembly and confirmed by the House of Representatives instead. The party has also called for the dissolution of provincial assemblies, district co-ordination committees and has stood in favour of a provincial council which would be elected by the heads of local governments in the province. The party chair Rabi Lamichhane did not cast his vote at the 2022 provincial elections.

Economic and social welfare

The party sees the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

co-operatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

and the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

as the three pillars of the economy. The party favors

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

and seeks to establish a growing role of the private sector as an alternative to the public sector in order to deliver services to the people and for economic growth. The party wants to end income tax for people in the lowest octile of earners in the country. The party also seeks to establish

food bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...

s in every ward in the country and to guarantee nutrition assistance for people living under the poverty line by issuing them

ration cards Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

. The party also seeks to expand the current

social welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...

system and to include private

insurance companies Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

in the social welfare system.

Healthcare

The party supports the establishment of a single-payer healthcare system and the establishment of at least one laboratory and a 750-bed hospital in each of the seven provinces, a 50 to 100-bed hospital in each of the 77 districts, a 6 to 25-bed hospital in each local unit and a clinic in each ward in the country. The party also wants to establish a centralized national

ambulance service Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to d ...

, health and quality assurance accreditation board, a food and drug department, a central disease board and a health innovation & development board. The party also wants to create a health workers act for public healthcare workers.

Corruption

The party seeks to crackdown on

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

by introducing a Whistleblower Protection Act to protect

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

s and by establishing an Anti-Corruption Police under the

Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA; ) is an apex constitutional body for corruption control for the Government of Nepal. The fundamental function of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is to prev ...

Women and sexual minorities

The party has also called for the establishment of shelters for victims of abuse and the creation of a fund to help victims of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

and

acid attack An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, tortu ...

victims. The party also seeks to promote entrepreneurship among women and

sexual minorities Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) comprise individuals whose sexual identity, sexual orientation, sexual behavior, or gender identity differ from the majority of the surrounding society. Sexual minorities include lesbians, gay men, bisexual peo ...

by establishing funds for businesses where at least sixty percent of the shareholders or employees are female or of a sexual minority group.

Electoral performance

2022 general election

The party nominated 131 candidates for the

First Past the Post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

seats for the

Leadership

Party Chairman

(2023–present)

Deputy Chairman

Swarnim Wagle Dr. Swarnim Wagle () is a prominent South Asian economist and a member of Nepal's Federal Parliament since April 2023, having been elected in a by-election from the seat of Tanahun 1 vacated when the incumbent became the third President of the F ...

(2023-present) *

Dol Prasad Aryal Honorable Dol Prasad Aryal is a Nepalese politician and the former Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security. Previously, In 2023, he served the same position for a term of 19 days in the Prachanda-led government. He is a member of the ...

(2023-present)

Joint Secretary

* Sumana Shrestha (2023-present)

Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party

* Biraj Bhakta Shrestha (2023-present)

Chief Whip

* Santosh Pariyar (2023-present)

General secretary

* Mukul Dhakal (June 2022- July 2024) * Kabindra Burlakoti (July 2024–present)

Spokesperson

Manish Jha Manish Jha is an Indian film writer and director, known for the film ''Matrubhoomi.'' Early life and education Born in Dhamaura, in the West Champaran district of Bihar, Jha grew up in Delhi where he had moved at an early age. He did his grad ...