Home Minister Thapa loses membership of National Assembly

KATHMANDU, April 18: With Chairman of National Assembly (NA), Ganesh Timilsina deciding to relieve Ram Bahadur Thapa, who is also the Ministers for Home Affairs (MoHA), as the member of the upper house of parliament, Thapa has lost the membership of the NA.

Following Timilsina’s decision, the Federal Parliament Secretariat published a notice that Thapa’s position of lawmaker remains vacant, on Sunday.

With this, Thapa also lost his ministerial position. He can be reappointed by PM KP Sharma Oli and remain as the minister for the next six months despite losing the membership of parliament.  Article 78 of the Constitution of Nepal states that one who is not a member of federal parliament can be appointed as the minister, however, is required to obtain the membership of parliament within six months from the date of taking an oath.

The CPN (Maoist Center) had suspended Thapa as the lawmaker of the upper house as he joined the KP Oli-led CPN-UML following the March 7 order of the Supreme Court to invalidate the merger between the UML and Maoist to the Nepal Communist Party. The CPN (MC) registered a letter to the federal parliament secretariat on April 9 sharing the party’s decision.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had earlier reappointed the former Maoist lawmakers – Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Lekhraj Bhatta, Prabhu Sah and Gaurishankar Chaudhary—after they were suspended as the members of the House of Representatives (HoR).