With Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah sharpening his criticism against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol raising questions over the mayor’s working style, many have wondered whether the two top KMC office bearers have cordial relations.

Mayor Shah, who often makes public his statements through social media, criticised Prime Minister Oli on Monday for not sending the chief administration officer to the KMC.

In his latest social media post, Shah has accused the government of spreading false information about him. “If there is a system of granting a PhD on spreading false information, it should be given to the current government,” Shah said on Monday.

Shah has argued that the claims made by leaders from the ruling party CPN-UML—that no official wants to work at the KMC and those who were deputed at Shah’s office couldn’t work there for long—were totally false.

On February 28, he posted a status on Facebook lambasting Prime Minister Oli. Though he didn’t directly mention the issue of vacuum in the KMC’s top bureaucratic position, he hinted at it. Shah accused Prime Minister Oli of trying to make him unsuccessful.

“Respected Prime Minister, in your attempt to make me unsuccessful, do not sink the country,” his status read in essence.

That same day, CPN-UML General Secretary Shankar Pokhrel responded to Shah. “The Kathmandu metropolis’ mayor has expressed his anger against the government for not sending the chief administration officer,” Pokhrel wrote on social media. “But necessary attention has not been given as to why the government officers are not ready to go there of late.”

While the mayor often criticises Oli and other top leaders of other major political parties, the role of KMC Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol, who represents Oli’s party UML, is being curiously watched.

For her part, Dangol doesn’t often criticise Mayor Shah.

But she has spoken out against Shah’s approach of criticising the central government “instead of fulfilling one’s own duty first.”

While speaking to the media on Saturday, Dangol said that the KMC should first make public its investigation report on former chief administrative officer Saroj Guragain rather than criticising the central government.

“If the report reveals any shortcomings on the CAO’s part, disciplinary action should be initiated against him immediately,” Dangol said. She criticised the mayor for opposing the central government’s decision not to send a new CAO while sitting on the report.

The KMC on December 22 formed an investigation committee to probe the corruption charges against Guragain.

Dangol stressed that a thorough and impartial investigation should follow if the probe report reveals any conspiracy to the surface involving the CAO or others. She insisted that any misconduct or corruption identified in the process must follow appropriate consequences.

This is not the first time Shah and Dangol have engaged in arguments against each other. In June, at the KMC city council meeting, where the policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2024-25 were discussed, she criticised Mayor Shah’s working style.

Dangol on Saturday accused Mayor Shah of trying to divert the issue and criticising the government rather than providing a solution to the problem.

Dangol got elected as deputy mayor of the capital city contesting from the ticket of CPN-UML while Shah won the KMC’s top post as an independent candidate.

The KMC accused Guragain of bypassing the formal approval system and the due process while endorsing the construction plan for Kathmandu Tower at the Old Bus Park area and recommended action from the authorities concerned .

The mayor formed the investigation committee over Guragain’s decision under the leadership of Shankar Prasad Pandey, a former secretary of the Nepal government.

But Pandey says he handed over the investigation process to the committee members as he had to attend to family matters. “I have not visited the KMC office for the last few days, and I have urged committee members Suman Narsingha Rajbhandari and Mahesh Kumar Nepal to complete the investigation,” Pandey told the Post. “I am not aware whether they submitted the report.”

Dhurba Kumar Kafle, assistant spokesperson for KMC, also expressed his unawareness whether the committee submitted the report. Kafle, however, said that the relations between the mayor and deputy mayor haven't soured as speculated by the public.

“We do not see any problem between them,” Kafle said.

Nabaraj Parajuli, the ward chair of KMC-32, who won the election from UML, also denied problems in relations between the mayor and deputy mayor.

Guragain has been on leave for over two months after the KMC decided to investigate him. Despite the KMC asking for another CAO with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, the demand has not been addressed, said Kafle of the KMC.

However, the Ministry for Federal Affairs and General Administration spokesperson, Kali Prasad Parajuli, said the ministry cannot send another CAO until and unless Guragain is transferred from KMC.

“We have notified the KMC about it,” Parajuli said.