NCP conflict plays out in Province 5, Congress jumps into the fray
Provincial assembly members from the Nepali Congress resort to vandalism amid dispute in the ruling party over declaring name and capital of the province.
NCP conflict plays out in Province 5, Congress jumps into the fray
Post photo: Prateek Dhital
Province 5 has become the latest victim of the ruling Nepal Communist Party’s internal conflict, and the Nepali Congress, which is also the main opposition in the province, has added fuel to the fire.
In a bid to strike a balance inside the party, Nepal Communist Party chairs KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal last week “instructed” Shankar Pokhrel, chief minister of Province 5, to name the province Lumbini and declare Rapti Valley-Deukhuri its capital.
The ruling party’s order, which has faced criticism for undermining the spirit of federalism, has not gone down well with a section of the ruling party itself.
In a bid to smoothly get the proposal endorsed as per Oli and Dahal’s instruction, the party had issued a whip to its Province 5 Assembly members to vote in its favour.
But as soon as Internal Affairs and Law Minister Kul Prasad KC tabled the proposal at the assembly and discussions started, opposition parties, including the Nepali Congress, protested.
Some Congress leaders flung chairs and disrupted the assembly meeting.
Just as Congress leaders vandalised the assembly hall, Bhoj Prasad Shrestha, a provincial assembly member from the Nepal Communist Party, said that the [provincial] government’s proposal on the province name and its capital was wrong.
