KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 4
The Rabi Lamichhane-led Rastriya Swatantra Party held an emergency meeting to decide whether or not it should withdraw support to the government over the home portfolio, but deferred the meeting till tomorrow.
The RSP held the meeting late in the evening after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal offered it the physical infrastructure and transport portfolio instead of home portfolio.
RSP lawmaker Santosh Pariyar told mediapersons after the meeting that they decided to hold the next meeting tomorrow as they needed more time to debate contemporary issues. In response to a journalist's query, Pariyar said his party had not served any ultimatum to the government.
We had given two days' time because Coordinator of the high-level mechanism (KP Sharma Oli) and the PM had sought two days to resolve the issue, he added.
Pariyar said they discussed contemporary issues, by-election in Chitwan Constituency-2 and presidential election. "We did not discuss whether we should leave the government," he added.
Pariyar said party leaders were of the view that the RSP's demand was made to appear like a fissure in the ruling coalition, but the real cause could be something else. He was alluding to the differences between the CPN-UML and CPN-MC over presidential election.
The UML wants its candidate to be elected the next president, whereas the CPN- MC wants the new president to be elected through consensus.
Pariyar said his party leaders wanted the government to hold by-election in Chitwan-2 as soon as possible.
The RSP had been demanding that the PM should reassign the home portfolio to the party as that was part of the power sharing deal, but the PM refused saying he wanted to wait till the Supreme Court releases the full texts of its verdicts in cases filed against Rabi Lamichhane.
All RSP leaders are not in favour of quitting the government over the home portfolio.
The Supreme Court invalidated Lamichhane's election to the House of Representatives that resulted in Lamichhane's loss of the home portfolio.
SC invalidated his election to HoR in response to two writ petitions filed against him arguing that he did not get his Nepali citizenship restored after he renounced his US citizenship. After the court verdict, Lamichhane got his Nepali citizenship restored.
However, PM Dahal refused to appoint Lamichhane as minister or assign the home portfolio to his party saying the party should wait till the SC releases the full text of the verdict on the case against Lamichhane.
CPN-MC leaders also said the PM should not give the home portfolio to RSP as its Chair Lamichhane was facing the charge of holding two passports - Nepali and American. They said giving the home portfolio to the RSP could create a case of conflict of interest.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 5, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
