Kathmandu, September 20:

Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Mahato today claimed that the faction of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandidevi) he leads is authentic one.

He said this today at a press conference organised here after completion of the party’s Birgunj convention. “We successfully held the party’s Birgunj convention in which 72.2 per cent of the party’s convention representatives and 75 per cent of the party’s national executive committee representatives attended,” he said.

“We were compelled to expel Anandidevi from the presidentship,” he said, adding, however, that the party’s name still remained the same because of some ‘statutory compulsion’.