By Kamal Raj Sigdel
Gagan Thapa means business. At a gathering of party colleagues and friends before the Nepali Congress General Assembly last week, the young Turk said he was confident of victory in the party’s central working committee (CWC), “The challenge for me is to garner the highest number of votes.”
The votes were all counted on Monday (27 Sept). And true to his words, he was the No. 1. With 2,061 votes in his kitty, he stands out as the most favoured among the 25 new CWC members elected from the open competition.
However, this was not a surprise for many inside and outside the party. For, it was discernible before the election that the young man had managed to shore up support from a multiple sections of the party’s constituencies, including the youth, the establishment faction and obviously from his father-in-law, Arjun Narsingh KC, who stood only second after him.
Thapa himself, however, believes that his success is the reward for his loyalty to the party. “I remained disciplined at testing times,” said Thapa, whose request for a ticket to fight for the 2008 Constituent Assembly (CA) polls was turned down by then party president Girija Prasad Koirala. He was later nominated as a CA member from the proportional representation quota.
“My obedience made the party realise that in fact I could be trusted and I got the reward.”
Besides his obedience and the good wishes of senior leaders, according to KC, Thapa’s own popularity among both the youth and senior leaders in the party is uncontested. “He is young, educated, talented and dynamic. And he won,” KC said.
In fact, since the last few years, Thapa has been a poster boy for the party and to some extent a section of civil society as he is considered to have typified the progressive and reformist thoughts in the socio-political sphere. He rose to prominence especially after the royal takeover in 2005 and during the 2006 People’s Movement when he presented himself as a “fearless and reformist” youth from the NC.
However, some senior leaders do not concede with the perception that Thapa is really a reformist.
“Apparently, he looks reformist, but in fact, he always wants to be secure at every step he takes to prop up his individual political career,” says political analyst S. Aniruddh Gautam. “And his talent is that he can project himself as a reformist. He does that with his excellent oratory, a rarity among Congress leaders.” This very tendency to remain secure, his critics say, would limit his leadership potential within a narrow line, thereby handicapping him in the advocacy for a real departure in the party’s policy and programmes.
Leaders from the “fearless” Third Front, who were expecting Thapa’s hand during the party’s election, subscribe to this view. “He neither could support Narahari Acharya nor come up with a separate Youth Front. He joined his family bandwagon and this is what every Tom, Dick and Harry did,” said a leader from the Third Front that lost miserably.
Born in Kathmandu on 16 July 1976
Ancestral home Solukhumbu
Education Siddhartha Banasthali (SLC, 80 percent), ISc and BA in Sociology from Tri-Chandra College, dropped out of MA in Rural Development from Tribhuban University
Currently Studying (as of 2005) Master’s in Political Science from TU
As a student Not bad, I was among the selected 50 in school likely to top SLC
Plans PhD in Political Economy from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India but not before democracy is restructured in Nepal.
Sports Basketball, I was captain of the college team
Family Three brothers (engineers, a doctor), father (engineer), mother (homemaker)
Initially I thought I would end up as another doctor or engineer
In 1990 I got my first taste of political activism participating in street protests. Still in grade nine, I wasn’t politically inclined. We did burn an effigy of the Panchayat era but it was all youthful vigour, not real political interest.
Has been member, secretary and president of Free Student Union; president of Kathmandu Nepal Student Union (NSU); vice-president, general secretary of NSU
Major political influences are Nelson Mandela and BP Koirala, they had vision and leadership qualities (Source Wave Magazine. Click here to read Gagan’s Q&A with the Magazine in 2005)
Related:
1. Gagan Thapa Declares Nepal Student Union Presidency Candidacy (2007)
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9 responses to “Gagan Thapa: Most Favoured in Nepali Congress”
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I have known Gagan Thapa since I got my interest in polical field but not actively. He is a true Polical dynamo person and new dimension for the Nepali Congress Party and for the whole country too. He is a talented, charismatic & has true political convition that’s what our country needs. Let’s respect & give him a right place within the party’s position not only to encourage him but to inhance political culture in the NC party.
I have a no word about mr.GAGAN DAI Because he is a real hero i always support him because he is my political HERO in Nepalies politician’s
I thought Gagan Thapa is going to be good Leader of Nepal but since I watched his Video tape taken by Jaya showbiman,about USA DV Lottory,now I know it will be one of the worst for country of Nepal if he ever become prime Minister that our Nepal will be like Hell,cause he is one of the cleaver man by giving speech for people doing no thing,How can he say that people who are being Lucky to be winner on DV where they can have better life instead of hoping by such a bad Leader of Nepal,Hey why he is not being worried where our thousand of Nepali are working in India being servant of Indian where they hardly make money and people who works in USA makes more than Nepal prime Minister and people who works in USA they don’t have to lie or kill to any body to have a good food and to ride Car, MR Gagan you are out of mind,…….don’t you have shame? to talk such a none sense……………….
Very serious Issue.
We are very upset about the Video tape which were taken by Jaya showbiman on the topics of DV Lottory .Are you guys really crazy or do you guys have some kind of mental problem? Lag chai na…Thukka……. USA jasto desh ma jasle lottory paye ko cha tesko kheeli udaune? K sabai Nepali timi haru jastai Parliment member ra DR cha ki k ho Nepal ma Moj masti garera dhuniya lai thagera jhutto bolera Nepal ko samptai udayera gadi chadera raksi piyera dance bar ma halera hindu lai…..timi haru jasto Neeta le garda aaja derai talent Nepali America ko ta kura nai nagaruw… jabo India, ra arabian counrty ko tato gham ma 300 dollar ko lagi pani gako cha,Mr Thapa and Gurung why don’t you stop for those people who are
even trying to go in India to wash dishes? America ma DV parera aune ta they are very lucky…..jasko life ko security cha ani jasko whole family ko future ujaylo cha,in America there is no discrimination and opportunites are unlimited where it never ends as long as you work hard being sincere,America ma khana basna gadi chadna lai timi haru jasto jhutto bolere
Secondly Afu Dr bayera Nepal ma moj garne mauka payo bandai ma aru lai
heep ne? Yesta Dr Nepal ma baye pachi k ko Nepal bancha? Dr Ganesh Gurung you are also out of mind. Timi dubai pagal ho ki hawa kura bolera famous huna lai yesto bane ko ho?
….lag chai na timi dubai lai? Thukka …….yesto kura agarna sahucha?…….
America ma gadi cahdna yek chak man lage ko khana lai timi haru jasto jhutto bolera Desh ko sampati udau nu pardai na,Dishwasher nai kam gare pani Nepal ko Prime Minister le banda badi kamaucha ani tyo banda kunai kam life chai na ,Nepal ko k kura garcha? pagal haru…japan south korea Jasto desh ko manche usa ma gren card pauda tholo bhoj garera party garcha,America ma World ko manche aucha k ko Nepal ko kura garcha?
America is not only for money it has equal respect and laws are made in same respect for poor people or rich people and no one is above the law like you guys in Nepal,America ma ta timi jasto parliment member election ma na jeete pachi usa ma ayera kam garera base ko cha ki na ki usa ma sidha kam garera timle jastai khana paucha, timi haru jasto le garda USA ma phd garera Nepal farke ka Nepali nepal ko chowr sarkarle yeuta campus ma padau ne kam ma samet afu banda kamti education bako lai hire garera chitta dhukaye ko cha jasko reason feri America nai farkinu pare ko cha,ki na ki usa always appreciates the quality of peole …Timi haru jasto Neeta jaba samma sabai lai jail ma khuchaudai na ta ba samma Nepal ma k pani hune wala chai na ra sabai Nepali bidesh lagi nai rahane cha…first do some thing before opening your big mouth.
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