KATHMANDU: A close aide of NCP (NCP) leader Ishwor Pokhrel said he was miffed at the party leadership for making a party lawmaker resign from a safe constituency to let Bamdev Gautam become a lawmaker.

A central committee member of the NCP said on condition of anonymity that in the party’s secretariat only Pokhrel, who is also deputy prime minister and defence minister, was against the idea of providing Gautam an opportunity to become a lawmaker. He said other top leaders of the party – Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal — had their own reasons to give Gautam a chance to become an MP.

Oli is supporting Gautam because he thinks this is the best way to reciprocate the help and assistance Gautam had offered him to become the party’s parliamentary party leader, the source said. He added that Dahal and Nepal were supporting Gautam because they thought Gautam could help them in the General Convention in their bid to become chairperson of the party.

The source said Pokhrel was against the idea of providing a safe constituency to Gautam because he feared that Gautam, who is senior to him in the party’s hierarchy, could overshadow him if he was inducted in the Cabinet.

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