The Yadav-Bhattarai faction of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) has told the Election Commission that Mahantha Thakur has submitted fake details calling himself the first chairman of the party.
The Thakur-Mahato faction claims that the executive committee meeting on December 22, 2020 has granted Thakur the authority to make changes in and reshuffle the executive committee in capacity of the first chairman. The faction has also submitted copy of the decision taken by the meeting that day.
Thakur removed 20 members from the Yadav-Bhattarai faction and replaced them with leaders close to him invoking that decision. The newly inducted members include 14 coming from the erstwhile FSFN and six from RJP.
Thakur then called meetings of the reshuffled executive committee and endorsed parliamentary party statute and elected Rajendra Mahato as parliamentary party leader. The reshuffled executive committee also decided to support Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli. The Thakur-Mahato faction has support of 20 out of the 32 JSP lawmakers in the dissolved House.
The Yadav-Bhattarai faction has called the documents submitted by Thakur forged. Chairman Upendra Yadav, Senior Leader Rajendra Shrestha and other leaders reached the Election Commission and submitted what they claim is the real press statement of that day.
The statement made available by the Yadav-Bhattarai faction states that the party decided to agitate against House dissolution by Oli. Both the Chairmen, Yadav and Thakur have signed, on the statement submitted by the faction while the document submitted by Thakur includes signature of only Thakur.
Lawyers close to the Yadav-Bhattarai faction, meanwhile, are preparing to lodge a forgery case against the Thakur-Mahato faction. "Mahantha Thakur and others apparently misused prior signatures collected for another purpose and submitted to the Election Commission. We are preparing to lodge a forgery case with the District Court making Mahantha Thakur the defendant," advocate Deepak Rai, who is close to the party, told Setopati.
