Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, as well as indigenous lawyers and lawmakers of the dissolved Constituent Assembly have decided to start a separate party made exclusively of indigenous people. Rajkumar Lekhi, president of the federation, said that the new party will be declared on 9 August to mark World Indigenous Day.

However, past polls have shown that ethnic political parties usually have a hard time attracting voters. Although the indigenous population of Nepal was around 37 per cent at the time of the 2001 census, the seven ethnically-inclined parties failed to win even a single seat during the 2008 CA elections.

Religious and ethnic parties have been a part of Nepali politics for more than two decades, but those who restrict their membership to people from a single caste, language, or religion cannot register with the Election Commission. While India has the Shiv Sena, and Pakistan and Bangladesh have parties like Jamaat-e-Islami, the fact that such parties have been unable to garner popular support here is proof of Nepal's heterogeneous harmony and interdependence among Nepalis.

Lately, many INGO 'activists' have been strongly demanding ethnic-based parties. The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, which was an NGO until the Madhes uprising registered a huge win in the CA elections. The win brought Madhesi leaders to the national mainstream and they were able to secure powerful positions in government which might be prompting these indigenous activists to start ethnic parties.

"Although Madhesi leaders rose to power after the CA election, this is a futile exercise of the indigenous federation," says a member of an indigenous party, on the condition of anonymity. He believes that if the indigenous federation is given political form through heavy influence from INGO activists, such a party will neither have a political ideology nor strong leaders.

Former CA member Pasang Sherpa who resigned from the UML to start a new party to protect the rights of indigenous communities feels the mainstream can longer ignore the 37 per cent of indigenous population. However, NC leader Bhim Bahadur Tamang says, "Any party that fails to safeguard democracy and national interests won't last long."