KATHMANDU, JULY 11

The Election Commission of Nepal has scrapped the application filed by former Maoist lawmakers seeking nullification of their erstwhile party - CPN (Maoist Centre).

A meeting of the Commission held today decided to render the application void citing that the complainants claims could not be substantiated.

The former Maoist leaders had, on July 7, filed the application at the Election Commission stating that the Maoist Centre is an illegitimate unit and thus all it's decisions are illegitimate too.

Dozens of former Maoist leaders, following the Supreme Court's decision to split the former Nepal Communist Party (NCP) into their former separate units - Maoist Centre and CPN-UML, had decided to stay with the UML, abandoning their former party.

The Maoist Centre had then taken action against these leaders, most of them Ministers in the Oli-cabinet, by removing them from the House of Representatives.

This had led to these lawmakers, including the then Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, to lose their Ministerial seats.