Kathmandu, August 27

The Kamal Thapa-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party today filed a case at the Supreme Court against the Election Commission’s decision to give validity to Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Democratic.

As per the apex court’s earlier verdict, the poll panel had given validity to the RPP-D led by Pashupati Shumsher Rana on August 23.

A single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC on August 21 had issued an interim order against the EC’s decision to re-verify the signatures submitted by Rana to form a new party. The bench had also asked the EC to start registering the Rana-led party and grant the new party a new election symbol.

RPP Spokesperson Bhuvan Pathak informed that his party had filed a case against the EC’s decision at the apex court today. He claimed that the RPP-D did not have the support of 40 per cent of its central working committee members.

As per the law, any faction that wants to break away from its mother party to form a new party requires to have support of at least 40 per cent of both the party’s central committee members and lawmakers .

“We have filed a case at the Supreme Court today against the EC decision,” said Pathak. He said that nine central working committee members and lawmakers had also filed a case at the SC, stating that their signatures which the Rana-led faction produced while applying for a new party were misused. They maintained that their signatures were meant for purposes other than a party split.

SC Spokesperson Narayan Panthi said hearing on the case would begin tomorrow. Rana had severed ties with the Kamal Thapa-led RPP on August 6 and had filed an application at the EC the same day  to form a separate party named Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Democratic.