KATHMANDU, Dec 24: Samajbadi Party Nepal, a key ally of the Oli-led government, is all set to quit the government anytime soon, party leaders said on Tuesday.

A meeting of the party's top leaders decided to quit the government after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli rejected its proposal to amend the constitution during Monday's cabinet meeting.

According to SPN leader Shivaji Yadav, PM Oli had vehemently rejected the constitution amendment proposal tabled by Upendra Yadav, the deputy prime minister and law minister. Yadav was leading the government on behalf of his party.

DPM Yadav is announcing his resignation shortly, according to party leaders.

Yadav was under the internal pressure in the  Samajwadi Party Nepal to quit the government following the unilateral move of Prime Minister Oli to change his ministerial portfolio and recall a state minister from the party in the cabinet reshuffle in the third week of November without prior consultation. However, SPN did not walk out of the government.

SPN National Chairperson  Baburam Bhattarai had been lobbying for quitting the government, using the prime minister’s move as an opportunity to do so. But Chairperson Yadav remained reluctant. The Yadav faction in the party had argued that leaving the government would only pave way for its rival Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal to join it. 

PM Oli had allegedly shunted  Samajwadi Party chief Yadav to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs from the Health and Population Ministry when Yadav was away in New Delhi to attend an international function.

Similarly, the prime minister appointed a state minister from the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to the Urban Development Ministry which is headed by SPN leader Mohammad Istiyak Rayi.

 
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