Kathmandu, October 9

Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Ram Bir Manandhar, who was elected from Kathmandu Constituency No 7, tendered his resignation today to get party leader Bamdev Gautam elected from the constituency.

Gautam had lost to Nepali Congress’ Sanjay Kumar Gautam by a few hundred votes in the parliamentary election from Bardiya-1.

Manandhar, a four-time member of Parliament, held a press conference today to tell mediapersons of his decision to resign from the Parliament.

He told THT that he would submit his resignation to Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara once the party formally accepted his resignation. He said he decided to sacrifice his seat for Gautam, who had done a lot to advance the party’s ideology, expand its base and realise the merger of the erstwhile CPN-UML and the CPN-MC.  “This is the best way to show respect to the septuagenarian leader. I think he can do a lot to solidify the unity of the party and help the government ensure development and prosperity. He can certainly do much more for the party and the people  than what I can achieve as a lawmaker,” Manandhar added.

He said his resignation letter was discussed in the party yesterday after party General Secretary Bishnu Paudel read out its contents to party leaders who attended the secretariat meeting.

Manandhar had contested the last parliamentary election from Kathmandu-7, defeating his nearest rival Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Bikram Bahadur Thapa with a healthy margin of 8,023 votes.

A source close to Gautam said if he was elected from the constituency to be vacated by Manandhar, the senior leader could become the PM if for any reason the Parliament had to elect the new prime minister in the next four years.