Kathmandu: The Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (JSP-N), one of the coalition partners in Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda-led government, has split after a majority of its lawmakers and over two dozen central committee members applied for a new party at the Election Commission.
A faction of the JSP-N led by the party’s federal council chair Ashok Rai registered the application for a new party while the party’s chair Deputy Prime Minister Upendra Yadav, who is also minister for health and population, is on a trip abroad. Pradip Yadav, a lawmaker of the JSP-N, said that 29 central committee members and seven lawmakers have jointly applied to form a new party.
Of the party’s 12 House of Representatives members, seven -Rai, Sushila Sherstha, Pradip Yadav, Nawal Kishor Sah, Ranju Kumari Jha, Birendra Mahato and Hasina Khan - have supported the new party named ‘Janata Samajbadi Party’ (without the ‘Nepal’ of the mother party).
The Election Commission on Monday officially recognised the Ashok Rai-led Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) as a new political party.
Party insiders said that Rai registered the new party at the advice of Prime Minister Prachanda to counter Yadav, whose relations with the ruling alliance have soured lately. There are reports Yadav was trying to ally with the opposition Nepali Congress and the ruling party alliance CPN-Unified Socialist-led by Madhav Kumar Nepal after NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba reportedly offered the Prime Minister’s post to Yadav to topple the Prachanda-led government.
However, the ruling coalition consisting of the CPN-UML led by K P Sharma Oli and the CPN (Maoist Center) has managed to maintain a narrow majority in Parliament.