A day after it wrapped on the knuckles of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) for its activities, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday decided to put its earlier decision related to the party on hold, following which the RPP withdrew its planned protests.

The RPP had announced protests against EC’s March 17 decision of removing “monarchy” and “Hindu state” from the party statute. 

On Tuesday, the party had even burned the copies of the EC decision. The poll body on Wednesday warned the RPP not to repeat such activities. 

The EC’s move of putting its earlier decision on hold comes amid warnings from the RPP, the fourth largest force in Parliament, that it would pull support to the government and boycott elections.

“All the protest programmes have been withdrawn. The party will focus on elections now,” said RPP spokesperson Bhuvan Pathak. “However, we will resume our protests after elections if the EC fails to correct its decision. 

While removing “monarchy” and “Hindu state” from the RPP’s party statute, the EC had said the phrases contravened constitutional provisions of republican order and secularism. However, the RPP has argued that the EC had infringed upon its constitutional right by removing its agenda’s from the party statute. 

The RPP, which had staged a demonstration in front of the EC headquarters last month, had announced that it would hold demonstrations in Valley and picket district election offices on Friday. 

It had also warned of moving the Supreme Court against the EC move. 

Surya Sharma, spokesperson for the EC, said that the poll body “has decided to put its earlier decision on hold as it is currently busy with election preparations”. “We will take a final decision on the RPP’s request to review our decision after the local polls,” Sharma added. “The RPP, however, cannot use the two agendas for elections as they remain suspended.”