DAMAULI, FEBRUARY 08

Gandaki Province Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung has accused Nepal Communist Party (NCP) rival faction leaders Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal of acting on their lust for power.

"Why do you think Dahal and Nepal are wandering on the streets and putting up cheap shows in the name of protest? Apparently, it's because Dahal didn't get the post of the prime minister and Nepal couldn't get the post of party chair," Gurung said while addressing a ground-breaking ceremony for a proposed hospital in Panchanagar, Bhanu Municipality, today.

Further, CM Gurung, who is a supporter of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, argued that the PM was forced to dissolve the Parliament after Dahal and Nepal continued to hamper the work of the government. "What's wrong with him (the prime minister) opting for a fresh mandate when his own party men, not the opposition, were plotting to bring a no-confidence motion against him?" Gurung asked.

"The situation leading to dissolution of the House was created after the rival faction kept scheming to remove the PM from his post despite the fact that the PM had 64 per cent majority on his side in the party secretariat," Gurung argued. "I don't know why they are afraid of facing the people in the polls if they believe that people are both our ultimate judge and god?" he wondered.

Gurung also said it was ridiculous to say that the government was doing nothing. "It's under this government that roads were being widened, international airports and railway lines were being constructed, but people were still saying it hadn't done anything, which is ridiculous," he said.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 8, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.