Key Takeaways:

• Five lawmakers absent during Bagmati CM Kiran Thapa Magar's confidence vote
• RPP whip required members to attend and vote in favour of UML-led govt
• RPP parliamentary party gave 72 hours for explanation, none submitted
• Party statutes invoked to recommend removal from Provincial Assembly

HETAUDA, SEPTEMBER 10 The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has recommended removing five of its Bagmati Province Assembly members for allegedly defying the party whip during a vote of confidence in the provincial government. The RPP parliamentary party wrote to the Bagmati Provincial Assembly Secretariat seeking action against Bhuvan Kumar Pathak, Kumari Tamang, Laxmi Ghimire, Dhaneshwari Prajapati and Asha Lama, accusing them of violating the directive to attend the assembly meeting and vote in favour of Chief Minister Kiran Thapa Magar's UML-led government. The letter, addressed by Chief Whip Dambar Bahadur Tamang to the deputy speaker, was registered on Wednesday, parliamentary party leader Uddhav Thapa confirmed. The five lawmakers had opposed the party's decision to support the government. They remained absent while Thapa and other RPP members, Girbhadur Tamang, Raju Bista, Rajendra Prajapati, Dambar Tamang and Monika Shrestha, voted in favour of the confidence motion. On August 18, the parliamentary party meeting gave the five lawmakers 72 hours to explain their conduct, but none responded. Thapa said the party subsequently decided to seek their removal in line with the RPP's statute and Parliamentary Party Statute, 2079.