KATHMANDU, MARCH 27

CPN-Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal today said that his party would withdraw support to the government within a day or two no matter what the consequences.

Responding to queries from civil society members in Kathmandu, Dahal said he could no longer continue supporting the government.

Dahal said his attempt was to forge consensus among the Nepali Congress, CPN-MC and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal as these parties had opposed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's 'unconstitutional and undemocratic' move dissolving the House of Representatives.

'We want to do two things simultaneously: register no-trust motion and withdraw support to the government,' Dahal said.

Asked why political leaders could not resolve the current political problems, Dahal said political leaders had always taken bold steps in recent years from the time of the 12-point agreement till now. He added that he took a big risk when he wrote the 19-page letter detailing Oli's mistakes.

He said when he was the cochair of Nepal Communist Party (NCP), he had removed Oli as NCP co-chair, parliamentary party leader and even as general member of the party.

He said the division bench of the Supreme Court had delivered an unnatural verdict when it nullified the unification of CPN-UML and CPN-MC. 'The SC verdict was like nullifying a marriage and putting a child back into the mother's womb,' Dahal said and added that his party would file a review petition against the SC verdict that also was against the ruling of the five-member constitutional bench.

CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, who leads the rival faction of the ruling party, said the SC gave a strange decision when it nullified the unification that had resulted in formation of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). He said he would not be deterred by PM Oli's action, and that he stood steadfast in his counter-charge against Oli and his decision not to go to Baluwatar to attend party meetings.

He reiterated his stance that as per the court decision, the party bodies, committees and structures that existed before the UML's merger with the CPN-MC should remain as they were.

However, Oli rejected this. Nepal said he was ready to face any consequences, but would not budge from his stance.

Yesterday, PM Oli had told the parliamentary party meeting that Nepal and Bhim Bahadur Rawal could face punitive action for penning accusatory clarifications against him.

Nepali Congress leader Minendra Rijal said when a notrust motion was filed against the Oli government, his party would vote in favour of the motion.

'We never had trust in PM Oli, he added.

JSP-N Co-chair Mahantha Thakur said his party was mainly concerned about its demands.

Our party lawmaker is in jail, our provincial assembly member and other cadres face cases for taking part in agitation, we want our cadres and leaders released from jails and the false cases against them withdrawn, he added.

Thakur said his party was given importance when the need to form coalition government arose, not on other occasions.

He said Madhesis were never viewed positively in the nationalism debate. 'We have nobody in the state bureaucracy nor the judiciary that thinks positively about our plight. When the court decides against our costume and language and citizenship issues, we have no option but to accept them,' he said and added that other leaders, including Dahal, could be a victim now, but did not have to face the problems that the marginalised communities were facing.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 28, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.