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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000797 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS KDEM NP
SUBJECT: MADHESI PARTIES WIN A MAJOR ROLE IN NEPAL'S 
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 
 
REF: A. KATHMANDU 742 
     ¶B. KATHMANDU 785 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
¶1.  (U) For the first time in Nepal's democratic history, 
Madhesi parties won a significant percentage of seats in the 
April 10 Constituent Assembly (CA) election.  When appointed 
seats are factored in, the three leading Madhesi parties, 
including the largest -- the Madhesi People's Rights Forum -- 
collectively control 13.7 percent of the seats in the 
601-member Assembly.  Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandidevi), a 
minor Madhesi party, adds another 0.5 percent.  Nepal's three 
major parties  -- the Maoists, the Nepali Congress and the 
Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist -- in part 
because of the quota for Madhesis in the proportional 
election, also have a considerable number of Madhesi Members 
of Parliament.  Altogether Madhesis won 144 seats in the CA. 
 
Madhesi Electoral Breakthrough 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (U) Although Nepal has conducted four general elections 
since 1990, including in 1991, 1994 and 1999, the April 10, 
2008 Constituent Assembly (CA) election was the first time 
that Madhesi parties won a significant percentage of seats in 
the Parliament.  Nepal's Madhesi population is variously 
estimated at 15 to 20 percent, but Madhesi votes in past 
elections mostly went to national parties, primarily the 
Nepali Congress.  The only significant Madhesi party in 
previous elections was the Nepal Sadbhavana ("Good Will") 
Party (NSP), established in 1990, which was permitted to 
register in spite of a restriction in the 1990 Constitution 
on regional parties.  (The party, which was the successor of 
a civic organization founded in 1985, purposely took a 
non-parochial name.)  In 1991, 1994 and 1999, the NSP won 
4.1, 3.5 and 3.2 percent, respectively, of the votes.  This 
translated in the first-past-the-post system used in the 
election of the then House of Representatives to 2.9, 1.5 and 
2.4 percent, respectively, of the seats.  In contrast, in the 
CA election, the four Madhesi parties collectively won 14.2 
percent of the seats when appointed positions are factored 
in. 
 
Nepal's Three Major Madhesi Parties 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) Three Madhesi parties -- the Madhesi People's Rights 
Forum (MPRF), the Terai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) and 
the Sadbhavana Party (SP) -- have the dominant role in the 
601-member Assembly.  They placed fourth, fifth and sixth, 
respectively in the election, immediately after the Communist 
Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M), the Nepali Congress (NC) and 
the Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist (UML). 
 In early February 2008, the three parties formed a coalition 
called the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), which 
enforced a transportation closure in the Nepal's border 
region with India (the Terai) for two weeks.  On February 28, 
Prime Minister Koirala and the UDMF signed an 8-point 
agreement, which, among other things, accepted the Madhesi 
demands for an autonomous state (without defining its 
boundaries) and group entry of Madhesis into the Nepal Army. 
The agreement also paved the way for the three parties to 
participate in the election.  The Front subsequently broke 
down when the three parties proved unable to agree on common 
candidate lists. 
 
Madhesi People's Rights Forum 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U) The Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF), also known 
as the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum, was founded in 1998 as a 
civic organization by Upendra Yadav, a teacher, who was 
associated first with the UML and then the Maoists.  The MPRF 
came to prominence in early 2007 when it led the so-called 
"Madhesi Uprising" to demand Madhesi rights.  Yadav 
registered the MPRF as a party in June 2007.  By far the most 
popular of the Madhesi parties, MPRF won 50 seats in April's 
 
KATHMANDU 00000797  002 OF 003 
 
 
election: 28 in first-past-the-post (FPTP) races and 22 in 
the proportional representation (PR) contest.  (Note:  One of 
those FPTP seats is the subject of litigation in the CA 
Court.  End note.)  The cabinet on July 4 approved an 
additional 2 seats for the party from the 26 appointed seats, 
bringing the MPRF's total number of Members of Parliament 
(MPs) to 52 or 8.7 percent.  Yadav won both of the races he 
contested -- in Morang-5 and Sunsari-5; he has chosen to keep 
the Sunsari-5 seat and the holder of the Morang-5 seat will 
be determined in an upcoming by-election. 
 
Terai Madhes Democratic Party 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) The Terai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) was formed 
in December 2007 by a group of Terai politicians, led by 
Mahanta Thakur, an NC minister and senior leader, who left 
their respective parties (including the NC, UML and Rastriya 
Prajatantra Party) in frustration to form a new Madhesi-based 
party.  TMDP won a total of 20 seats; nine of these seats 
were won in FPTP races and 11 were captured in the PR 
contest.  TMDP also received one of the CA's appointed seats, 
which it used to appoint Thakur, who lost his FPTP race to an 
MPRF candidate.  This brought its total number of MPs up to 
21 or 3.5 percent. 
 
Sadbhavana Party and NSP-A 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) The Sadbhavana Party (SP) was formed in September 
2007 by Rajendra Mahato, the then Minister of Industry and 
Commerce, after a split with the established Nepal Sadbhavana 
Party-Anandidevi (NSP-A) over the NSP-A's leadership.  (Note: 
NSP-A came into being in 2005 when the NSP's main faction 
agreed to support the King's direct rule.  End note.)  While 
NSP-A currently holds the seat in the governing Seven-Party 
Alliance, SP has a much more prominent presence in the CA. 
It captured a total of 9 seats in the election, or 1.5 
percent.  Of these, 4 were won in FPTP races and 5 were won 
in the PR contest.  SP's president, Mahato, is a CA member 
from Sarlahi-4.  NSP-A managed to capture only two seats in 
the election, both on the PR ballot.  It also received an 
appointed seat, which went to Minister of Commerce and 
Industry Shyam Sundar Gupta.  Its three seats give NSP-A a 
0.5 percent share in the Assembly. 
 
Madhesis Across Parties 
----------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) A number of Madhesis were also elected to the CA as 
candidates of other parties.  Under the quota system in the 
PR race, parties which submitted PR candidate lists of more 
than 100 candidates were required to assign at least 31.2 
percent of the PR candidacies to Madhesis.  They were also 
required to fill the same percentage of the PR seats that 
they won with Madhesis.  Thus, CPN(M) chose 16 Madhesi 
candidates for PR seats, the NC chose 12, the Communist Party 
of Nepal - United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) chose 10 and 
five minor parties chose a total of seven more.  Many parties 
also ran Madhesis in FPTP races, where no quota system was in 
place.  Six CPN(M) and six NC Madhesi candidates and one 
CPN(UML) Madhesi candidate won seats in FPTP contests.  One 
independent Madhesi candidate also won a FPTP seat.  Between 
Madhesi and non-Madhesi parties, Madhesis won a total of 144 
seats in the Assembly.  Of these, fewer than 17 percent have 
ever served before in Parliament.  (Note: Post considers all 
MPs elected by one of the four Madhesi parties to be Madhesi.) 
 
A Note on the Term "Madhesi" 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) The term "Madhesi" was originally used to refer to 
inhabitants of Nepal's plains area, known as the Terai, 
distinguishing them from the country's hill residents, who 
are called "pahadis."  Thus, the term could be used to refer 
to all Terai inhabitants, including the Terai's various 
indigenous nationalities (such as the Tharus), as well as to 
Muslims and dalits.  However, in recent decades the term has 
become the focus of anti-Indian sentiment, and has therefore 
 
KATHMANDU 00000797  003 OF 003 
 
 
increasingly been used to refer only to the Indian-origin 
inhabitants of the area -- who are consider to have more in 
common culturally with northern India than with the rest of 
Nepal and who have long been excluded from Nepali politics. 
Some Tharus, Muslims, and dalits, such as MPRF MP Bijay 
Gachchhadar, who is Tharu, considered themselves to be 
Madhesis, but many increasingly do not. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9. (U)  Nepal's three largest Madhesi parties did not even 
exist at the time of the last general election.  Born out of 
the politics of protest, the Madhesi People's Rights Forum in 
particular is struggling to come to terms with its new role 
as a major, elected political force.  For nearly two weeks, 
beginning on July 26, the MPRF and its allies disrupted the 
CA's proceedings to compel the Maoists, the NC and the UML to 
include the key provisions from the February 28 agreement in 
a planned constitutional amendment.  In remarks to the 
Assembly on July 9, MPRF chief Upendra Yadav implicitly 
acknowledged defeat.  The bill tabled by the Government that 
day and subsequently approved on July 13 (septel) did not 
give the Madhesi parties the "One Madhes, One Pradesh 
(province)" which had been one of their key demands.  Yadav 
said that the Madhesi parties had decided they could no 
longer prevent adoption of a new budget, which was due by 
July 15.  Instead, he announced that they would boycott the 
vote on the amendment, and they did.  One of the biggest 
challenges for the country going forward will be to find 
compromises that take Madhesi concerns into account while 
allowing the Constituent Assembly to do its business. 
BERRY