Madhesh Parties Move Against Speaker

Janakpur, Nov 14 – A coalition of seven political parties within the Madhesh Provincial Assembly has introduced a motion targeting Speaker R...

Janakpur, Nov 14 – A coalition of seven political parties within the Madhesh Provincial Assembly has introduced a motion targeting Speaker Ram Chandra Mandal, alleging that he has shown bias and breached assembly rules.

The motion, which accuses Mandal of not maintaining the honor of the Speaker's position, has been supported by 74 members from the 107-member provincial assembly. Deputy Speaker Babita Raut has already handled the motion.

Representatives from the Nepali Congress, Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) Nepal, Janamat Party, CPN (Maoist Centre), Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP), CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Nagarik Unmukti Party have supported the proposal.

In the joint motion, the parties charged Speaker Mandal with consistently conducting the assembly according to the directives of a single party and "ignoring opposition legislators." They further accused him of preventing assembly party leaders from accessing the podium and disregarding the ruling of the Business Advisory Committee.

The Speaker has exceeded his constitutional and procedural powers," stated Saroj Kumar Yadav, the JSP's provincial assembly party leader from Bara. "He has carried out assembly sessions supporting the ruling party and dismissed the concerns of the opposition.

The motion refers to section 180 (1) of the Provincial Assembly Regulations, 2018, which permits members to introduce such a proposal with the support of one-fourth of the total assembly members.

Individuals who have signed the motion are Kumar Kant Jha (chief whip, Nepali Congress), Ram Ashish Yadav (chief whip, JSP Nepal), Mahesh Prasad Yadav (leader, Janamat Party), Bharat Prasad Sah (provincial assembly party leader of the Maoist Centre), Jaynul Rain (provincial assembly leader of the LSP), Kanish Patel (chief whip of Unified Socialist), and Urmila Devi Singh (provincial assembly party leader of Nagarik Unmukti Party).

As per witnesses, when officials at the Provincial Assembly Secretariat were getting ready to file the motion, Speaker Mandal unexpectedly showed up and attacked LSP member Upendra Mahato and Mahesh Yadav, the provincial assembly leader of the Janamat Party.

A lawmaker from the Janamat Party, Chandan Singh, informed the Post that Speaker Mandal also physically assaulted and acted inappropriately towards multiple members of the seven-party alliance who were present at the location.

Lawmakers were in the Deputy Speaker's office when the event took place. They were eventually saved by the police. "The Speaker came in through the back entrance of the Assembly building along with about 50 individuals and assaulted us," stated Singh. The atmosphere at the Provincial Assembly Secretariat is still volatile, with more security personnel stationed to avoid additional conflicts.

The Chief District Officer of Dhanusha, Prem Prasad Luitel, stated that extra security staff from the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force were sent in response to requests from provincial assembly members for police assistance. The legislators were subsequently safely escorted out of the building.

In the meantime, Speaker Mandal has issued a notice removing the positions of five lawmakers who missed ten straight regular sessions following the filing of the motion against him. All five are members of parties part of the seven-party alliance.

The dismissed legislators consist of Urmila Devi Singh from the Nagarik Unmukti Party, along with Manish Kumar Suman, Sanjay Kumar Sah, Singhasan Sah Kalawar, and Sharada Shankar Prasad Kalawar—all affiliated with the Janata Samajbadi Party.

Conflict escalated in Madhesh when the former Madhesh Province Chief, Sumitra Subedi Bhandari, who departed Janakpur for Kathmandu at 4 am on Monday due to health issues, named CPN-UML representative Saroj Kumar Yadav as the new chief minister of Madhesh. The newly appointed chief minister took the oath of office and secrecy at a hotel in Bardibas.

Seven groups took to the streets to demonstrate against Yadav's disputed appointment as per Article 168(3), circumventing coalition discussions outlined in Article 168(2).

Speaker Mandal, chosen as the CPN-UML candidate, has come under fire for claims of procedural unfairness and for permitting legislative sessions to continue with insufficient opposition participation.