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Minister, 3 MPs resign in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mahantha Thakur, and three other lawmakers resigned from the government and interim Parliament on Monday to lead a separate political front in Terai.

Addressing a press conference in the capital, they said they would form a separate political front in Terai and launch an agitation to secure the rights of the Madhesi people.

The former minister, Hridayesh Tripathi of Nepal Sadbhavana Party-Ananda Devi (NSP-A), Mahendra Yadav of the CPN-UML and Ram Chandra Raya of the Rastriya Prajantantra Party (RPP) are the lawmakers who submitted their resignations to Speaker Subash Nemwang.

They said they were forming a separate political front as the seven-party alliance, the interim government and the interim Parliament had failed to address the problems of the Madhesi people living in Terai.

“The government has failed to maintain even basic law and order in the Terai,” said Mr. Thakur.

The Madhesi lawmakers are uniting to give a “democratic” outlet to the Madhes crisis, Mr. Tripathi said.

He claimed that other Madhesi lawmakers would also soon resign from the interim Parliament and join them.

Senior leaders from other parties have also joined the new political front.

Rastriya Janashakti Party spokesman Sarbendranath Sukla, Nepali Congress leader Anish Ansari, Brishesh Chandra Lal, Ram Chandra Kushwaha and UML leader Shri Krishna Yadav were also present at the press conference. All of them have resigned from their respective parties.

Observers said this will create a new political polarisation in Terai.

Various small political outfits, including Madhesi People’s Right Forum and splinter group of Nepal Sadbhabana Party, have already formed two separate political fronts in Terai.

More than a dozen armed outfits are currently engaged in armed rebellion along the Terai stretch, bordering India.

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