The two lawmakers reached Speaker Subas Nembang´s office at parliament secretariat at Singha Durbar Thursday afternoon to file application to form a new parliamentary party. [break]
"Speaker Subas Nembang verified their signatures,” confirmed Sudarshan Kuikel, assistant spokesperson at the parliament secretariat.
A total of 40 percent lawmakers from a political party can register a new parliamentary party at the parliament secretariat.
In their application submitted to the speaker, the two lawmakers have accused Mahato of promoting nepotism in the party, working only for his personal interest and trying to use the party as his fiefdom.
We couldn´t stay in the party and work under his leadership any longer as he didn´t change his working style this time as well when he is a minister, said the two lawmakers in their application.
Mahato-led SP won altogether nine seats during the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections in 2008 but a group of four lawmakers led by party general secretary Anil Jha, who is minister for industry in the present government, split the party last year and formed Sanghiya Sadbhavana Party.
Now, the Mahato-led party has only three lawmakers -- Mahato himself, Laxman Lal Karna and Saroj Kumar Yadav.
With the formation of the new party, the number of political parties represented in parliament has reached 33 though only 25 political parties were elected during the CA polls in 2008.
All the Madhes-based political parties -- Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF), Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), SP, and Nepal Sadbhavana Party-Anandidevi (NSP-A) -- have split into two or three parties after the CA elections.
Two new political parties -- MPRF-Democratic led by Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar and MPRF-Republican led by JP Gupta -- were formed after split from the MPRF while TMDP is a splinter faction of TMDP-Nepal. Similarly, Motilal Dugad of NSP-A quit the party and formed Nava Nepal Nirman Party last year.
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