Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane has said talks about the party again joining the government can start only after there is clarity in the ruling coalition.
RPP Chairman Rajendra Lingden opined that RSP should again be brought in the government during the meeting of high-level coordination committee of the ruling coalition at Baluwatar on Sunday.
Top coalition leaders including Prime Minister (PM) and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, CPN-UML Chairman and coordinator of the committee KP Sharma Oli, Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane, and RPP Chairman Rajendra Lingden attended the meeting to discuss contemporary politics.
Lamichhane in response said that there should be clarity about the coalition’s direction and end of suspicion between CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) before that.
“We should look at everything as a whole. There should be environment of trust between you all. ‘I said the issue of whether to join the government or not will only come when we finalize everything including the discussions about presidential election, and finalize by-election,’” Lamichhane told Setopati about this response. “The issue of participating in the government is not our agenda now. We have only recently left the government.”
RSP quit the government on February 5 after PM Dahal refused to give the Home Ministry to the party after Lamichhane reacquired Nepali citizenship since the Supreme Court (SC) deemed Lamichhane, who was elected to the House of Representatives (HoR) from Chitwan 2, ineligible to become lawmaker.
“What will be the overall direction of coalition? What is the state of common minimum programs? What was the spirit? That has not been seen now. There seem to be differences over presidential election. We are not sure if we stand together or not. We can talk about (joining the government) if we come to the right track considering everything as there seems to be some gap. But why we should come or not come is not important,” Lamichhane elaborated.
“Why was the coalition formed? On what commitments was it based? And why questions have been raised about it now? Why different things have arisen? Let’s review that. And then we can go smoothly. We will go if they say we can deliver.”
Lamichhane also demanded by-election in Chitwan 2.
Lamichhane revealed that PM Dahal told the meeting that he was holding discussion with the Election Commission and by-election will be held as soon as possible.
