KATHMANDU, JULY 28

Four former lawmakers representing the Maoist Centre that had left the party to join the then Oli government, have filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court demanding reappointment as House of Representatives' lawmakers.

Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Lekh Raj Bhatta, Prabhu Sah and Gauri Shankar Chaudhary had lost their House seats following their removal from the party by CPN (Maoist Centre) prior to the second House dissolution.

After nearly about four months later, the four 'stranded' leaders have moved the court stating that they still belong to the Maoist Centre, are legally its members and have not abandoned the party, seeking to be reassumed in the House.

The leaders have further argued that they had never formally joined the CPN-UML and as such they must be given back their posts.

The four Maoist lawmakers, along with the then Home Minister and Maoist senior figure Ram Bahadur Thapa had abandoned their party in a bid to join KP Sharma Oli-led government and had even defended his move to dissolve the parliament. They were all, then, inducted by Oli in his cabinet, albeit for not a long period as the court's order to relieve them from their duties cut their journey short.