KATHMANDU, May 17: The government has withdrawn the bill to amend the Political Parties Act. A letter regarding the withdrawal of the bill has reached the parliament secretariat.

There is a legal provision allowing the government to withdraw a bill at any time.

The bill aimed to revert to the previous system requiring 40 percent support from both the central committee and the parliamentary party for party division. In 2077 BS, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli introduced an ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act, intending to split the then Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) and the Sanghiya Samajwadi Party. The ordinance stipulated that instead of 40 percent support from both bodies, only 40 percent from either the Central Committee or the Parliamentary Party was needed. This ordinance faced widespread criticism, leading to its withdrawal by Oli.

Later, under Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, an ordinance was issued by the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari, reducing the required support to 20 percent. This change facilitated the formation of new parties by the Madhav Nepal faction of the UML and the Mahantha Thakur faction of the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).

The ordinance was revoked once the CPN (Unified Socialist) Party led by Madhav Nepal and the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) led by Mahantha Thakur were registered with the Election Commission.

However, with the ordinance becoming ineffective due to the lack of a replacement bill, the current government registered an amendment bill in parliament to restore the previous requirement of 40 percent support from both the central committee and the parliamentary party.

Although this bill appeared on the daily agenda multiple times, it was never submitted for discussion. It was also on Thursday's agenda for discussion but the House session was disrupted due to the obstruction by the Nepali Congress.

 
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