Nepal’s ruling coalition holds emergency meeting as govt shows signs of crack

“We are also soliciting legal opinion on the SC verdict,” Prachanda said.

Anxieties have been flaring in the ruling alliance after an apex court verdict last month effectively annulled the 13-year-old immunity enjoyed by Nepal’s ministers against being probed by government agencies. The rift also comes at a time when Prachanda is believed to be allegedly trying to rope in the Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) into the coalition, and promising the Deputy PM portfolio with Home Ministry to the RSP leader Rabi Lamichhane.

The RSP, fourth largest party in Nepal’s House of Representatives with 275 members, has a strength of 22. It will give a majority to the government in case Madhav Nepal’s United Socialist party and Uprendra Yadav’s Samajwadi Janata party (SJP) pull out of the coalition.

The SJP, similarly has also issued an ultimatum to the PM. It said its support to the coalition will depend on the government’s decision to announce a fresh probe into the 13-year-old Gaur Massacre, in which 27 Maoists had been killed. Yadav, at the time of the killings, headed the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), which allegedly gunned down the Maoists.