But this communist ideologue is fast changing his ways.
Spending hours meeting fans, party cadres and sympathizers has now become his new routine. [break]
In a change of tack, Bhattarai has stepped up his visits to the districts, meeting locals and party cadres, to strengthen his base at the grassroots level.
Last Tuesday, he reached remote Darchula where enthusiastic party cadres, locals and civil servants gave him a grand welcome. A visibly tired Bhattarai continued meeting party activists and addressing the masses throughout his four-day trip to western Nepal.
With his latest trip to Darchula and Baitadi, he has visited all 75 districts but he has no intention of taking a rest.
What has brought about this drastic change in Bhattarai?
"It is due to internal turmoil in the party and the attempt by the party establishment to humiliate and sideline him. As a leader you should have a strong organizational base, and he has realized this lately. Better late than never," says a Maoist leader close to Bhattarai.
Party leaders say the infamous Khanna Garment episode was the turning point.
At a close-door meeting at Khanna Garment, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal portrayed Bhattarai as ´pro-Indian´, in an apparent bid to cut him down to size and to exclude him from the prime ministerial race.
"It is as if someone has rudely woken him from a deep slumber," says the leader.
Before the Khanna Garment episode, Bhattarai had limited his up-country visits to his home district of Gorkha, once a month. But he drew encouragement from the Palungtar plenum where he was “pleasantly surprised” by a large following of party cadres and, more importantly, by a significant section of the People´s Liberation Army (PLA), which was totally controlled by Dahal.
At the same time, Bhattarai was shocked when Dahal and Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya joined hands to endorse the political line of ´people´s revolt´ and declare India the party´s "principal enemy", both of which were against his political conviction.
“After that there was no alternative to building his organizational base for survival, hence the flurry of visits,” says a Central Committee (CC) member.
The fact that Bhattarai joined a Maoist party organized by Dahal and Baidya in 1992 and remained more of an ideologue left him organizationally weak despite his popularity among the masses. Nor did he see any need to galvanize his organizational strength as he then shared the same political vision as Dahal.
When Bhattarai declared at the famous Chunwang meeting in 2005 that he was “dissolved into the chairman” his long-time aides, who were against “Dahal´s monopoly in the party” began to abandon him, and during the Kharipati meeting many even joined the Baidya faction to stand against the Dahal-Bhattarai alliance.
The relations between Bhattarai and Dahal soured meanwhile and the latter tilted toward the line of Baidya, who had a good hold on party organization.
Bhattarai became isolated from the party establishment and was in need of support for his survival.
“We were again united with Bhattarai once he called for safeguarding our common ideology,” says Maoist leader Ram Karki, who is close to Bhattarai.
Party leaders often draw an analogy between Bhattarai´s situation now and Baidya´s frantic visits to the districts to expand his organizational base, immediately after the peace process began. When Dahal and Bhattarai were in the same camp, Dahal had ´humiliated´ Baidya and the latter focused on consolidating his hold in the organization.
And now Dahal has been deliberately ´ignoring´ Bhattarai, trying to ´humiliate´ him and even threatening to take action against him, thinking the latter would either bow to him or leave the party altogether.
But Bhattarai instead chose to go his own way and expand his organizational base. “Dahal has failed on both counts,” says a Maoist politburo member.
Party leaders admit in private that at no time has the Maoist party been as fragmented as it is now, and they doubt if it would remain intact. The growing factionalism has penetrated the party rank and file and thrown the whole party machinery into disarray, posing the threat of a vertical split in the largest political party.
“It is not yet clear the party will be able to settle the ongoing factionalism and rid itself of the anarchy. It is good if we can reconcile. If not, Bhattarai needs an organization in case there is a split in the party, hence he must continue to be active,” says a leader from the Bhattarai faction.
It is also interesting to see how Bhattarai´s views have broadened lately, and how he has moved on from the party´s ´parochial views´ on several issues.
His views on nationalism are markedly different from the party´s official line.
“Beggars cannot enjoy full independence, nor do they have nationalism,” argued Bhattarai at an interaction program last Tuesday.
This argument may smack of submission but he has lately begun to argue that no country can promote nationalism or defend national interests unless it is economically strong.
He views on competitive politics have also grown more explicit. He has begun to argue, at least in private meetings, that there is no alternative to political pluralism. As various surveys--however unscientific they may be-- routinely portray Dr Bhattarai as the most popular leader in contemporary politics his faith in the people´s choice has only grown stronger.
Where does all this take Bhattarai in future? Bhattarai himself seems uncertain. Ironically, it is this uncertainty that has given Bhattarai a reason to work harder-- to strengthen his influence within the party and to look beyond the party. And that´s exactly what he is doing.
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