During the 2022 local level election, people of Kathmandu elected independent candidate Balendra Shah as their mayor for five years. Sunita Dangol of the CPN-UML secured the position of KMC deputy mayor in the same election. When they began their term, many suspected that the two—an independent mayor and his party-affiliated deputy—wouldn’t have cordial relations. But, in the last two years of their term, there has been no visible disagreement between them. They proved their sceptics wrong.

Deputy Mayor Dangol kept mum when Mayor Shah accused her party chair, KP Sharma Oli, of policy corruption in the Giri Bandhu Tea Estate land scam.

Moreover, Shah expressed his anger on June 3 over the government’s intervention in his plan to widen pavements in the New Road area. Deputy Prime Minister Raghubir Mahaseth of the UML leads the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, which maintains major roads.

After the ministry intervened in the municipal plan to expand the sidewalk on New Road, Shah took to social media and wrote, “Honourable KP Oli jyu, don’t hoodwink people by engineering yet another scam to hide a scam of Rs10,000 crore [Rs100 billion].”

He further added, “You have reassured those who had made advance payments to buy land of Giri Bandhu Tea Estate that they would get the land within two years.”

“If one looks at the policy corruption in the tea estate, it appears not a single leaf would stir without Oli’s nod,” Shah wrote.

A few days prior to the incident, Mayor Shah had engaged in a heated debate with Chinkaji Maharjan, a UML member and chairman of KMC’s ward 22, over the sidewalk expansion plan.

Dangol remained quiet on the issue thus far. However, at the city council meeting on Monday, which also discussed KMC's policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2024-25, she criticised Mayor Shah for his remarks.

“This should be the first time the deputy mayor opposed the public behavior and statement of the mayor,” a Kathmandu ward chairperson told the Post on the condition of anonymity.

Dangol had her initial plan to contest the mayor position independently but the UML gave her the deputy mayor’s ticket.

Speaking during the Monday discussion, Deputy Mayor Dangol said, addressing Mayor Shah, “Your and mine voices are being heard and watched by Nepalis worldwide. Therefore, those of us who want to come to politics should think about our expression,” Dangol remarked. “We should maintain the image and dignity of the institution we represent.”

She also emphasised the need to accommodate the voices of everyone in an undertaking.

Though the representatives of Kathmandu Metropolitan City claim that Dangol's Monday statement was unusual, they deny any rift between the two leaders of the local government.

“City council’s is an internal meeting of the KMC where various issues arise. We settle those issues internally,” Nabin Manandhar, the KMC spokesperson and ward 17 chairman from the Nepali Congress, told the Post. “Having an opinion does not necessarily mean criticism.”

Rajesh Kumar Shrestha, chair of KMC ward 19, seconded Manandhar.

However, local representatives of Kathmandu have been questioning Shah for his ‘lone-wolf’ manner of leading the institution.

“We should develop a working relationship that welcomes everyone’s spirit,” Dangol told the council meeting. “If one thinks they are in a position and everything should be done as they say, it will only lead to trouble.”

She added, “While working in a team, we definitely have a different opinion, but different opinions should be respected.”

At the meeting, referring to Mayor Shah's past statements, council member Anita Karki asked him, saying, “What if the voters of Kathmandu set ablaze the Durbar where the KMC office lies?”

In September last year, when the traffic police obstructed a KMC vehicle, later known to be used by his postpartum wife, Mayor Shah provocatively wrote on Facebook, threatening to burn Singha Durbar, the federal government’s central secretariat.

Traffic police, under the federal government, had stopped the vehicle to check necessary documents on a Saturday.

After the incident, Shah wrote on social media warning that if the government blocked KMC's vehicles again, he would set fire to Singha Durbar.

Dangol said on Monday that she believed it was wrong to write on social media or make a statement inciting people to burn the Singha Durbar or the Bagh Durbar, where the KMC office is situated.

Dangol, speaking at the city council meeting, also said there should be no polarisation between the representatives who were elected to develop Kathmandu.