The Social Development and Agriculture Committee of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly, which has been vacant for a year, has fallen to the opposition Maoists. After the Congress and UML took the stand of not providing the Accounts Committee, the Maoists agreed to have the Agriculture Committee. According to the agreement, Maoist MP Damayanti Ruchal was the only candidate for the chairmanship on Thursday.

In a joint meeting between the parties, the UML proposed that a Privileges Committee should be formed and if the committee is chaired, then the Audit Committee should be given. However, the Maoists rejected that proposal. After this, Chief Minister Surendraraj Pandey asked the Maoists to take over the vacant committee, which is the chairman of the audit committee.

Maoist Parliamentary Party leader Hari Bahadur Chuman said that after the ruling party's stance of not adding an audit committee without adding a privilege committee, they are ready to take over the vacant committee chairmanship. "I said, 'How will you explain to the people that the structure will be canceled and the committee will be added because the expenditure is too high,'" he said. We said no. Later, the Chief Minister asked to take a vacant committee.

The 11-member agriculture committee has 6 MPs from the Congress, 3 from the UML and 2 from the Maoists. Maoist party leader Chuman is also a member of the same committee. Another Member of Parliament, Dayamanti Ruchal, will become the Speaker. Ruchal from Nawalparasi (Bardghat Susta East) is proportional MP. 

Thursday was the schedule of nomination registration for the election of the chairman. The proponent of Damayanti is Mahesh Bhattarai of Congress and the supporter is Lil Bahadur Thapa Magar of UML. He will be declared elected unopposed at the committee meeting held at 3 pm on Friday. 

Maoist  The chairmanship of the committee has been vacant since NESP leader Fanindra Devkota, who is a member of the parliamentary party, became a minister on May 30 last year. Agriculture and Accounts Committee could not be agreed between UML and Maoists on who should take over. UML demanded to leave the Audit Committee but instead to form the Privileges Committee provided by Article 187 of the Constitution. 

Gandaki State Assembly Rules 2080 to elect the chairman were amended after 7 months. The regulation was passed by the Parliament on March 26 last year, which removed the obstacles by providing a provision that the chairman can be elected within one month.

While there is a provision that elections should be held within 15 days of the vacancy of the chairman, there is a provision that elections should be held within 30 days for one time. The regulation was approved and published in the provincial gazette on May 25. After the mandatory arrangement that the chairman should be elected by June 25, the party finally agreed that the Maoists will take over the agriculture committee.

Since chairman Fanindra Devkota became a minister, the meeting of the committee has been chaired by senior member Mahendra Dhwaj Ji. Last June, after the issue of government formation reached the Supreme Court, the election of the chairman of the parliamentary committee could not be held on time.

The action taken by the Maoists against Devkota was annulled by the Supreme Court. After the dispute was resolved by the Supreme Court, on June 16, Devkota, a member of the Nepal Samajwadi Party, became a minister for the second time. After that, the provision of 15 days time in the rules for electing the chairman had expired. Then, a 4-member revision draft committee was formed on August 26 last year to revise the regulations. The revised regulations brought by the said committee to remove the obstacles are currently being implemented.