Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that the hassle of Ram Bir Manandhar resigning from the House of Representatives (HoR) and Bam Dev Gautam contesting the by-election has ended.
Addressing a program organized to exchange Dashain greetings in Kageshwori Manohara municipality on Friday he said the episode has ended now that Gautam himself said he will not contest.
"The issue of Manandhar resigning and Gautam contesting election has ended now. There is no need to feel tension about that," Dahal said. "Gautam said yesterday he will not contest election. The hassle has ended. We will now focus on development of the country."
Manandhar, who was elected from Kathmandu-7, had announced resignation Tuesday afternoon. He declared that he resigned to get CPN leader Gautam elected arguing that the whole country and not just Kathmandu-7 will be developed if Gautam comes to the parliament.
Chairman Dahal had proposed in the Monday's secretariat meeting to make Gautam HoR member by holding by-election in Kathmandu-7.
Manandhar was elected with 18,102 votes from Kathmandu-7 in the last election. RPP's Bikram Thapa had received 10,079 votes with support of Nepali Congress (NC).
Gautam had been demanding he be brought to the HoR in almost all the secretariat meetings claiming that he was victim of betrayal by the then CPN-UML leaders and cadres in the general election. He had lost to Sanjay Kumar Gautam of NC by 753 votes in Bardiya-1 despite the alliance of UML with the then Maoist Center.
There were efforts to get him elected from Dolpa earlier but cadres put pressure on the elected lawmaker Dhan Bahadur Buda to not resign. Gautam also did not insist stating that he does not even know leaders and cadres of Dolpa.
A Baluwatar source claims Manandhar had demanded with Dahal and Gautam that he should be elected to the National Assembly and made minister.
