KATMANDU, Dec.8 -- Six ministers in a crucial partner in a three-party coalition rebelled and resigned Sunday triggering a crisis in the 15-month-old government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Among those who resigned were Minister for Local Government Kamal Thapa and Science and Technology Minister Ram Krishna Acharya,who was earlier sacked from the central committee of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party. Nine out of 19 members of the party's parliamentary party met and and told King Birendra they had withdrawn their support for the three-party coalition. 'The government is now in a minority. It should resign on moral grounds,' the rebels said in a statement. 'This is not a party decision. I will tell the king so. This is a result of lobbying,' party president Surya Bahadur Thapa said. He earlier expelled six members who called for a new coalition with the communist opposition from the central committee and replaced them with henchmen. 'The majority is with us. The government should resign on moral grounds. The government has failed to function according to the coalition spirit,' the RPP's parliamentary leader Lokendra Bahadur Chand said. The communists are trying to form an alternate government with a rebel faction of the RPP with Chand as prime minister. Thapa and chand are rivals. Earlier, 102 members of Parliament petitioned King Birendra to convene a special session of parliament to discuss a no-confidence motion against the government. The 102 members also told the king they had withdrawn their support for Deuba's government.
The king has to convene such a session when reuqested by one-quarter of the 205-member house of representatives. Ten loyalists of the RPP in government issued a statement opposing a coalition with the communists. The latest government crisis was triggered when an investigating agency Thursday filed corruption charges against Agriculture Minister Padma Sunder Lawati of the RPP. Lawati denied the charges and said it was conspiracy of Deuba's Nepali Congress Party, the dominant partner in the government. The government just holds a slender majority in parliament.
