KATHMANDU, AUGUST 23

Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal Chair Upendra Yadav has asked Madhes Chief Minister Lal Babu Raut to step down in the face of controversy surrounding him.

JSP-N Spokesperson Manish Kumar Suman said the party chair had sought Raut's resignation and expected him to resign immediately. 'Although this is not the right time to seek chief minister's resignation, as the party is preparing to contest provincial and parliamentary elections, Yadav decided to seek his resignation after he failed to follow the party's mantras for governance,' Suman said. He added that corruption cases against provincial bureaucrats was also one of the reasons why Yadav had sought Raut's resignation.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had recently filed corruption cases against some provincial bureaucrats accusing them of irregularities in the distribution of cycles under 'Educate Daughter, Save Daughter' programme.

Raut was appointed the CM on 14 February 2018 after having been elected to Madhes assembly from Parsa-1(B) on the ticket of the then Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal (now JSP-Nepal). Raut told THT that Yadav raised concerns about performance of some ministries of the province but he did not seek his resignation.

When asked about JSP-Nepal Spokesperson Suman's claim that Yadav, the party chairman, had sought his resignation, Raut said, 'I have not heard anything from the party chair. Suman is the party's new spokesperson and is blowing the issue out of proportion,' Raut added.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 24, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.