Nepali Congress President Gagan Thapa has categorically denied that any money changed hands in the ongoing dispute over the party's authenticity, saying the contest within the party is political and legal in nature rather than a financial transaction. In a video message released on Thursday, Thapa said that although people talk in crores when they describe the internal fight, not a single rupee changed hands. He offered the clarification in response to a publicly released audio clip of alleged middleman Inam Sapkota, and he insisted that his own hands are clean.

"Not a single rupee changed hands"

In his recorded statement, Thapa confronted directly the suggestions that money was moving behind the scenes of the party's authenticity fight. According to Nagarik News, he said that while the fight for officialdom and authenticity has been accompanied by talk of transactions worth crores of rupees, no such transaction has taken place.

The choice of words was pointed. By acknowledging that people talk in crores, Thapa signalled that he was aware of the scale of the speculation circulating around the dispute. His answer, however, was that the rumours had no basis in fact: whatever others may claim, he said, there was no financial dealing of any kind. The denial was framed in absolute terms, leaving no room for partial transactions or informal arrangements.

Response to the Sapkota audio

Thapa's video message did not come out of nowhere. It was issued in response to an audio clip of Inam Sapkota, described as an alleged middleman, which was released publicly and added fuel to the allegations of financial dealing. As Global Awaaj reported, Thapa used the video statement to address the audio's implications and to defend himself against any suggestion of impropriety.

The release of a recording involving an alleged middleman in a party dispute is a serious matter for any political organisation, because it shifts the conversation from questions of political legitimacy to questions of personal conduct. Thapa's response reflected that gravity: rather than ignore the clip, he chose to answer it publicly, on record and in his own voice, denying that any money was involved and stating plainly that his own hands are clean.

A political and legal fight, not a financial one

Central to Thapa's clarification was his framing of the authenticity dispute itself. The fight, he said, is political and legal. In other words, the battle is over who legitimately represents the party and its office-bearers, a question to be settled through political argument and legal process, not through payment or purchase.

That framing carries weight. Disputes over authenticity strike at the heart of a party's identity, because they concern who controls its name, its organs and its decision-making. By characterising the conflict as political and legal, Thapa sought to draw a clear line between the contest for legitimacy, in which he is engaged, and the allegations of financial transactions, which he rejects outright.

The key points of his statement

According to his video message, reported by Nagarik News and Global Awaaj:

  • No financial transaction of any kind took place in the fight for officialdom and authenticity.
  • Talk of dealings worth crores of rupees does not reflect reality; not a single rupee changed hands.
  • The dispute is political and legal in character, not financial.
  • Responding to the publicly released audio of alleged middleman Inam Sapkota, he asserted that his own hands are clean.

What the denial means

Thapa's statement now leaves the public with two competing accounts of the authenticity dispute: an audio clip from an alleged middleman, and a categorical denial from a party president delivered through a video message. By denying the transactions so emphatically, he has placed the focus back on the audio itself and on those who circulated it.

For the Nepali Congress, the stakes are considerable. Allegations that money changed hands in a dispute over authenticity strike at the party's internal credibility, and they threaten to overshadow the substantive political and legal questions that the fight is actually about. Thapa's insistence that the conflict is political and legal, and that no rupee was involved, is an attempt to pull the conversation back onto those grounds.

Whether the audio and the video message will settle the matter is another question. What is clear is that Thapa has gone on record, in his own voice and on camera, to deny any financial transaction, to describe the fight as political and legal, and to declare his hands clean. For now, that denial stands as his formal answer to the allegations raised by the release of the Sapkota audio, and it sets the terms on which the dispute will continue to be debated within the party and beyond.