Kathmandu : Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) Chairman Mahanta Thakur has called a meeting of the parliamentary parties on Friday. Thakur has 20 MPs, but the number of MPs supporting him has been declining since Thakur’s faction left the government.

Rajkishore Yadav, Pramod Sah, Amrita Agrahari, Rani Mandal, Ruhi Nath and Naramaya Dhakal, who are considered close to Thakur, are absent in the meeting.

Discussions have started within the party that Pramod Sah, Amrita Agrahari and Rani Mandal, who did not participate in the meeting, have changed sides and joined Upendra Yadav. Sah, Agrahari and Mandal are dissatisfied with Thakur and Rajendra Mahato as they have not been made ministers in the KP Oli government.

If they leaves with Mahantha, there will be 18 MPs in favor of Upendra Yadav and 14 in favor of Thakur. The Election Commission is preparing to decide which faction will be the official on Sunday. Thakur’s faction is also in the minority in the Central Executive Committee. The 51-member committee has 31 members in favor of Upendra Yadav and 20 members in favor of Thakur faction.
Meanwhile, Mahanta Thakur, Rajendra Mahato, Sharad Singh Bhandari and Anil Jha met UML Chairman KP Oli at his residence in Balkot on Saturday. According to sources, Thakur has sought Oli’s help during the Election Commission’s discussion on party officiality on Sunday. The commissioners of the Election Commission were appointed by Oli alone when he was the Prime Minister.