The Supreme Court (SC) has endorsed the expulsion of Krishna Thapa from the Gandaki provincial assembly by Rashtriya Janamorcha.
The SC on June 6 had issued an interim order against expulsion of Thapa. The Janamorcha parliamentary party of Gandaki, provincial assembly secretariat and Speaker Netra Nath Adhikari then applied for review of the interim order.
A joint bench of Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha and Kumar Regmi hearing the review application on Monday has endorsed Thapa's expulsion.
The coalition government of Krishna Chandra Nepali of Nepali Congress (NC) has become stronger after endorsement of expulsion. The strength of provincial assembly was up to 60 after the interim order and Nepali needed support of 31 lawmakers to become chief minister (CM).
With endorsement of Thapa's expulsion he will need just 30 lawmakers when he decides to opt for the mandatory floor test within 30 days of his appointment.
The party had written to the provincial assembly secretariat on June 3 informing about Thapa's expulsion and the provincial assembly had expelled him the same day.
A single bench of Justice Kumar Chudal hearing the petition filed by Thapa against his expulsion on June 6 then issued an interim order instructing the provincial assembly to not immediately implement the decision to expel him and allow him to work as a lawmaker including the rights to vote on the floor.
Thapa had defied the party decision to topple the CPN-UML government of Prithvi Subba Gurung. He had opined that he cannot help in formation of an alternative government led by Nepali Congress (NC) even during the ongoing budget session of the House and batted to save the Gurung government.
The party had earlier decided to support the opposition alliance against UML in Gandaki but not join the government. There were efforts to make NC-led government following that decision by Janamorcha but that failed after Thapa defied the party decision and refused to sign in support of NC-led government.
Janamorcha had expelled him from the party in a way that he does not even remain a general member after that.
