Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has proposed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) to join his government.
PM Dahal made the proposal during his meeting with RSP President Rabi Lamichhane at Baluwatar Sunday morning. Lamichhane in response said that the party was not in favor of immediately joining the government but he, nonetheless, showed interest about the ministries his party had previously been given.
“PM actually invited me to extend felicitations. Discussion about contemporary politics obviously happens in that,” Lamichhane told Setopati. “He said that he would like us to join the government and work together. I told him that we didn’t have that thought and wanted to work harder on building the party.”
He also showed interest about removal of the issues included in the common minimum programs when RSP was in the government and told Dahal that many questions had been raised about the speed the government achieved until now and lack of completion of the Cabinet.
“We don’t have interest in joining the government. I have told him that we would hold discussion after he asked but we would wait for some time,” he added. “We have only recently come after election. It is normal to ask about our portfolios in the government, what will happen to our previous ministries.”
He revealed that PM Dahal promised to hold discussion on that.
Rabi Lamichhane had been inducted as home minister on December 26, 2022. The party had sent three ministers including Lamichhane and a state minister to the Cabinet. It quit the government on February 5 following PM Dahal’s refusal to give it the Home Ministry after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that Lamichhane was ineligible to become a lawmaker as he had not completed the process to reacquire his Nepali citizenship certificate that had become invalid after he acquired US citizenship.
Lamichhane has been reelected lawmaker in the by-election held in Chitwan-2 while the party added another seat to its 20 secured in November 2022 after its candidate Swarnim Wagle was elected from Tanahun-1 that became vacant following election of Ram Chandra Paudel of Nepali Congress as the president.
