Nepali Congress

The Nepali Congress (NC; Nepali: नेपाली कांग्रेस [neˈpali ˈkaŋres]), colloquially known as the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a social democratic political party in Nepal. With 870,106 members as of the party's 14th general convention in December 2021, it stands as largest party by membership in Nepal. In June 2023, the party started online membership since the emergence of youth leaders in vital posts to attract youths to the party. The party remained the only among older parties to complete generation transition in leadership electing Gagan Thapa as party president. The party had won 38 seats in the 2026 general election and remaines as the largest parliamentary opposition group in the House of Representatives.

There have been seven Nepali Congress prime ministers and the party has led the government fourteen times. Matrika Prasad Koirala, a founding member of the party was appointed as the first commoner prime minister following the end of the Rana regime in 1951. Subarna Shumsher Rana, another founding member of the party was appointed prime minister in 1958. Congress is the only party in Nepal to have been elected with a majority, with the party forming majority governments in 1959, 1991 and 1999 under B.P. Koirala, Girija Prasad Koirala and K.P. Bhattarai respectively with B.P. Koirala becoming the first elected prime minister of the country. The party also formed coalition governments in 1995 and 1998 with Girija Prasad Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime ministers. The party emerged as the largest party following the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections and led a coalition government under Sushil Koirala. After the promulgation of the constitution in 2015, the party led coalition governments under Deuba in 2017 and 2021.

The party was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Nepali National Congress and the Nepal Democratic Congress along democratic socialist lines. NC prime ministers led four governments between the fall of the Rana dynasty and the start of the Panchayat era, including the first democratically elected government of Nepal, after the 1959 general election.