The infighting within the third largest party, the Rastritya Prajatantra Party (RPP) concerning the forthcoming elections to the Upper House has reached a climax. Earlier the party passed a resolution saying an understanding should be reached with the Sadbhavna party, the ML and the Nepali Congress for the election. The very next day, Surya Bahadur Thapa released a statement saying that instead of working with all these parties, the RPP would from now on work only with the UML. The party finalised its candidates and announced that the candidate from the mid-west would be Khem Raj Pandit. The RPP also decided to help the ML in the far west and the NC in the eastern, central and western regions.The party also decided that at least one RPP candidate would win one of the Upper House seats elected by the Lower House. The day after this announcement, Thapa met Madhav Nepal in the parliament secretariat and agreed to support the UML in all five regions. The UML would help the RPP to get Lokendra Bahadur Chand elected by the Lower House. Nepal agreed on the condition that Thapa signed the documents and made the deal public. Thapa agreed-and spoke in favour of the agreement on NTV. Rabindra Nath Sharma, a powerful RPP member, protested. He said the RPP had pledged to work with the Congress and that Thapa did not have the right to sign any agreement independently, against the directives of the party. sAnother RPP leader, Jog Meher Shrestha filed his nomination for the election to the Upper House in defiance of Thapa's stated plans.