Mahantha Thakur moves SC against Election Commission’s decision

KATHMANDU: Mahantha Thakur on Friday filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court against the Election Commission’s decision to grant legal recognition of Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal to the Upendra Yadav-led faction.

Thakur faction had lost the ownership of the party following the Election Commission’s July 26 decision.

He urged the apex court to not implement the Elections Commission’s decision.

In the writ, Thakur said that the implementation of Election Commission’s decision would split the party and end the purpose of central leadership. He also said that the decision would create an irreparable loss to him and all the concerned stakeholders.

Out of 51 executive members, 34 members had thrown their weight behind Yadav-Bhattarai faction while 16 had supported Thakur-Mahato faction and one remained neutral during a support verification process.

The faction dispute in the JSP-N intensified after the Thakur faction supported KP Sharma Oli’s bid for prime ministership under the Article 76 (5) of the Constriction and Yadav faction supported Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba’s bid for prime ministership under the same article of the Constitution.

Earlier, Thakur had filed a case at the Supreme Court seeking an interim order against the poll body’s decision to do a head count of the executive members of the party to understand which faction has majority in the Executive Committee.

Also read: Yadav-Bhattarai faction gets official status of JSP-N