MPs from General Secretary Gagan Thapa's side refused to sign.
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Fifty-seven Nepali Congress lawmakers have signed a supplementary petition, including the signatures of the majority of the then House of Representatives members, to the writ petition regarding the restoration of the House of Representatives, which is pending in court.
Earlier, seven MPs, including the then Chief Whip and Whip of the Congress, and the then Chief Whip and Whip of the UML, had filed separate writ petitions regarding the restoration of the House of Representatives.
Even though the Congress Central Working Committee made the institutional decision to go for elections, the issue of the restoration of the House of Representatives is also being taken forward together after consultation with party President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML President KP Oli. However, there is no agreement within the party on this issue between the General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma.
The signatories include MPs from the establishment and other party leader Shekhar Koirala's side. MPs from the General Secretaries Thapa and Sharma's side have not signed. They have been of the opinion that the Congress should not go in favor of restoration, saying that the only way out of the current crisis is through elections.
The signing, which has been going on for three days, has been signed by 60 MPs, including 57 from the Congress, two from Janmat and one independent. Earlier, a writ petition was filed with the joint signatures of seven MPs, including then Chief Whip Shyam Ghimire and Whip Sushila Thing. Including them, the number of then MPs from the Congress standing in favor of the restoration of the House of Representatives has reached 64.
Two MPs from Janmat and one independent MP have also signed the signatures being held in the Congress parliamentary party.
A leader of the Congress said that Mahantha Thakur, the chairman of the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, has also said that four then MPs of his party will also sign in favor of the restoration on Monday. Similarly, MPs from the Civil Liberation Party, which was part of the then KP Sharma Oli-led coalition, have also indicated that they will sign.
The UML has claimed that 75 of its then MPs have already signed. The number of 64 from the Congress and 75 from the UML makes it 140. The leaders of the Congress and the UML have claimed that by the time the supplementary petition is filed, 150 signatures from the then MPs will be received, including those of other small parties. "We will go with the supplementary petition the next day if the signatures are complete," said another Congress leader.
