Kathmandu, June 21
The Election Commission has asked the Mahantha Thakur-Rajendra Mahato faction of the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal to clarify its position on the Upendra Yadav-Baburam Bhattarai faction's claim of being the authentic party.
According to EC Spokesperson Rajkumar Shrestha, the poll panel wrote to the Thakur-Mahato faction yesterday asking it to respond within 15 days.
Recently, the Yadav-Bhattarai faction went to the EC claiming a majority in the party's executive council. It also cited punitive action it took against leaders of the rival faction, expelling some of them from the party through the executive committee.
The Thakur-Mahato faction, on the other hand, claims that the Yadav-Bhattarai faction doesn't command a majority in the party's executive committee. It has claimed that Thakur, who was given powers by the executive committee on December 22 to reshuffle party bodies, had already reshuffled the executive committee before Yadav single-handedly called its meeting where he decided to expel some leaders from the party.
The Yadav-Bhattarai faction has accused the Thakur-Mahato faction of forging documents authorising Thakur to reshuffle party bodies. Recently, the EC had refused to recognise both factions' decision to expel rival faction's leader.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 22, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
