Kathmandu, November 4

President Bidya Devi Bhandari today appointed governors of all the seven provinces on the recommendation of the government.

According to a press release issued by the Office of the President, Somnath Adhikari ‘Pyasi’ , Tilak Pariyar, Bishnu Prasad Prasai, Amik Sherchan, Dharmanath Yadav, Govinda Kalauni and Sharmila Kumari Panta were recommended as governors of provinces 1, 2, 3,  Gandaki province, Province 5,  Karnali province and Sudurpaschim province, respectively.

The president is likely to administer the oath of office and secrecy to them tomorrow.

She had, on recommendation of the government, sacked all seven governors yesterday.

Earlier today, the secretariat of the ruling NCP had recommended the seven names to the government for governors.

NCP General Secretary Bishnu Paudel told mediapersons after the secretariat meeting that the government acted as per the constitutional authority in sacking the governors yesterday.

Governors are representatives of the federal government in provinces. After the new government took over, it waited all these months for the governors to resign. Since they did not resign, the government sacked them and chose its own representatives, Paudel said when asked why the government sacked all the seven governors. He said the government followed the constitutional provision while sacking the governors.

Meanwhile, NCP leader Madhav Kumar Nepal today opposed the party’s decision to name new governors as his favourites were ignored.

Nepal wanted to include Bishwakanta Mainali and Shrimaya Thakali in the list of nominees. “It is not about Nepal’s favourites. It’s basically about the rules. He opposed the PM’s style of ignoring differing voices in the secretariat meeting,” a source close to Nepal told THT.

Earlier, the government held a Cabinet meeting and recommended seven new governors.

The seven governors

• Somnath Adhikari ‘Pyasi’, a permanent resident of Kaski district, is also a former lawmaker. He had won Rastriya Panchayat election as a progressive candidate in 1986 and the first parliamentary election held after the first popular movement of 1990. He was a school teacher in Myagdi district before becoming a full-time politician.
• Tilak Pariyar, a permanent resident of Banke district, is a former CA member. He was associated with the erstwhile CPN-Maoist Centre during the Maoists’ people’s war.
• Bishnu Prasad Prasai, permanent resident of Jhapa district was the party’s candidate for Mayor of Mechinagar Municipality in the last local elections but he lost the elections. Prasai, who is close to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, has been associated with the communist movement for decades.
• Amik Sherchan, a permanent resident of Chitwan district, is a former deputy prime minister. He was the chairperson of Janamorcha Nepal before his outfit merged with CPN-MC. Later CPN-MC merged with CPN UML to form Nepal Communist Party (NCP). In terms of his political association, Sherchan is senior to all the top leaders of the ruling NCP.
• Dharmanath Yadav, a permanent resident of Siraha district is one of the old communist leaders who has been associated with the communist party since the formation of CPN-ML. Yadav, also a former school teacher, had contested parliamentary elections in 1991 and 1994, but lost both.
• Govinda Kalauni is a permanent resident of Baitadi district who had contested elections against Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba in the first Parliamentary elections held after the first popular movement of 1990. Kalauni is also one of the senior communist leaders of the far west.
• Sharmila Kumari Panta, a permanent resident of Chitwan district, is a conflict victim and has been in the forefront raising the concerns of conflict victims. Her husband Gyanendra Tripathi is among those disappeared during insurgency by security forces. He was last seen on 26 September 2003.

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