CHP said to consider İnce’s return to party to secure Kılıçdaroğlu victory in congress

Turkish main opposition CHP executives have contacted Homeland Party (MP) chair Muharrem İnce regarding his return to the party in a move to secure Kılıçdaroğlu victory in CHP congress, according to reporting from DW Turkish.

Thursday October 19 2023 10:30 pm

This file photo shows Homeland Party leader and CHP's former presidential candidate Muharrem İnce (L) and CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (R)

Duvar English

Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have contacted Homeland Party (MP) chair Muharrem İnce for his return to the party, DW Turkish reported on Oct. 17.

Accordingly, the main intention of this contact is to secure CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s victory in the upcoming party congress, as İnce is regarded as influential on some party delegates.

A senior party member close to Kılıçdaroğlu reportedly said, “Muharrem İnce's home is CHP. Some CHP members initiated the contact and Kılıçdaroğlu did not object.”

CHP’s general congress will be held on Nov. 4-5 in a race between “status quoists” and “revisionists.”

Many regard that Kılıçdaroğlu will mainly compete with CHP parliamentary group leader Özgür Özel in the race for party leadership.

The CHP Istanbul organization lastly elected “revisionist” candidate Özgür Çelik as its chair, whose delegates will have significant influence in the congress.

Following Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s electoral defeat against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential race with the party's failure to meet expectations of near 30 percent vote share in the general elections, the demand for change in party leadership and management has been increasing.

The party has now divided into two camps, "status quoists" who want to keep Kılıçdaroğlu as the party leader and "revisionists" who demand a radical change within the party.

Muharrem İnce

In the 2018 elections, İnce had run as the CHP's presidential candidate and received 30 percent of the votes. After losing the 2018 presidential elections, İnce's relationship with the CHP began to deteriorate.

In 2021, he resigned from the party in order to found his "Homeland Movement." In the same year, he and several former CHP members formed the Homeland Party as an alternative "Kemalist" party.

Despite initially running for the 2023 presidential election, he withdrew from the race three days before so that the main opposition “will have no excuses when they lose the elections.”