Nepal, March 19 -- After giving a thumping victory to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which went to the March 5 polls projecting Balendra Shah as its prime ministerial candidate, Nepalis now need to remain vigilant about a possible power struggle in party leadership. In Nepal's multiparty political history spanning three and a half decades, leadership tussles are nothing new. There are countless instances within the Nepali Congress and communist parties, including the CPN-UML and the now-extinct Maoist Centre, where leaders routinely butted heads for control, often breaking away from the parent party. The RSP, which was founded in July 2022, presents itself as separate from such politics. It needs to prove that.

The elections were th...