KATHMANDU, JUNE 19

The Mahantha Thakur-Rajendra Mahato faction of Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal has submitted the list of members it added to the 51-member Executive Committee.

According to JSP-N leader Laxman Lal Karna, who is also Minister of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, his faction reshuffled the Executive Committee on the basis of the decision taken on December 22 by two-thirds majority of the Executive Committee, including Upendra Yadav and Baburam Bhattarai that authorised 'first Co-chair of the party' Mahantha Thakur to reshuffle the Executive Committee and write official letters to the bodies concerned on behalf of the party.

He said Thakur had written to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari expressing support to KP Sharma Oli's government in accordance with the Executive Committee's December 22 decision.

On May 17, the Thakur-Mahato faction expelled 20 members from the Executive Committee loyal to Yadav and Bhattarai and added an equal number to the committee.

As the factional feud intensified, Yadav and Thakur expelled each other from the party, but the Election Commission did not give validity to any of the faction's punitive action against the other.

Yadav also expelled Thakur, Mahato, Laxman Lal Karna and Sarvendranath Shukla from the party accusing them of indulging in anti-party activities. According to Karna, the party had called a meeting on May 22, but Thakur cancelled the meeting.

Yadav, however, issued another notice saying the meeting had not been cancelled and would be held as planned. 'The Yadav-Bhattarai faction did not have majority in the meeting.

Only around 10 people attended the meeting that day, but the rival faction claimed that it had majority in the Executive Committee,'

Karna added.

He further said that as per the Political Party Act, a party has to submit details of the reshuffle made in the party bodies to the EC within 30 days. Complying with the same rules, his faction submitted the details to the Election Commission a few days ago.

Karna said that the Yadav-Bhattarai faction was claiming majority in the Executive Committee meeting held on May 22, but that committee had already been reshuffled on May 17 by his faction. 'How can the Yadav-Bhattarai faction claim majority in the Executive Committee, which has already been reshuffled?' Karna wondered.

He also said the meeting called by Yadav did not have consent of the first Co-chair Thakur.

Karna said Yadav took punitive action against his faction's leaders even though they had succeeded in getting some of the party's agenda addressed by the government. 'Yadav had joined the Oli-led government without addressing any agenda.

We could have joined the Oli government six months ago, but we did not do so until some of our agenda were addressed,' he added.

Meanwhile, the Yadav-Bhattarai faction issued a press release today saying no decision had been taken in the Executive Committee held on May 16 about delegating power to Thakur to reshuffle party bodies as there was no such agenda in the meeting. The faction accused the Thakur-Mahato faction of making a fraudulent claim at the EC about having power to reshuffle party bodies.

The faction also accused the rival faction of submitting fraudulent details at the Election Commission.

A leader close to the Thakur-Mahato faction said the Yadav faction's claim that on December 22 the Executive Committee did not authorise Thakur to reshuffle party bodies was wrong and anybody who doubted the authenticity of the decision could verify signatures and see the minute.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 20, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.