Nepal PM in trouble as 11 ministers quit

The crisis within the faction-riven Nepali Congress resurfaced last Wednesday when 58 parliamentarians- all from among the 113 party members in the Pratinidhi Sabha-requisitioned a meeting of the NCPP to register their censure of the NCPP leader.

And when Premier Bhattarai showed his unwillingness to attend the summoned meeting -which, he claimed, had been convened for February 21 without consulting him, eleven members of his council of ministers tendered their resignations to him late Friday.

Those who quit the Bhattarai-ministry comprised five cabinet-rank ministers, three ministers of state and an equal number of assistant ministers. And there were reports, yet unconfirmed, that more resignations were likely to follow from the thirty-member Bhattarai council of ministers.

All those who have so far resigned and others who requisitioned the oust-Bhattarai NCPP meeting are considered close to party president Girija Prasad Koirala, another septuagenarian who, along with Bhattarai, currently remains at the helm of the party. And though Koirala, in the interest of party unity, stepped aside in favour of Bhattarai as NCPP leader ahead of general elections last may and has since maintained that he was no longer keen for the post, political observers here aver that he would not be averse to serving yet another term as the prime minister of this Hindu Himalayan kingdom. Since the restoration of multi-party parliamentary democracy in Nepal in 1990, Koirala has been appointed premier thrice.

Bhattarai’s short spell so far as prime minister has been marked by a singularly lack-lustre performance and his own partymen has led the criticisms of his “weak and ineffective” style of governance. And less than three months ago, some eighty-odd NC parliamentarians carried out a signature-campaign for his ouster.

But the oust-Bhattarai drive then was halted after both Bhattarai and Koirala struck an agreement that the former would stop down after the winter session of parliament beginning march one next pleading “health grounds.”Lately, Premier Bhattarai has not been keeping well and was bedridden the whole of last week in his official Baluwatar residence. During this period, he had to be carried down by his aides from his bedroom to a meeting-hall for the weekly cabinet meeting over which he presided.