The Provincial Assembly of Gandaki Province has refused to allow Rajeev Gurung, better known as Deepak Manange, to take oath of office and secrecy as the representative of Manang (B).

Speaker Netranath Adhikari decided not to administer the oath to Manange as per the decision taken by the meeting of the Parliamentary Business Advisory Committee on Thursday.

On December 27, Manange had filed an application demanding that he be allowed to take the oath as a provincial assembly member.

Manange was elected to the state legislature of Gandaki Province as an independent candidate from Manang (B) in the 2017 provincial election. But his election victory was short-lived after police issued an arrest warrant against him in an attempted murder case.

Speaker Adhikari said he decided not to administer oath to Manange for the time being as he was disqualified as per the legal provision of the Election Commission.

“The decision was taken as all the members of the Parliamentary Business Advisory Committee gave a similar opinion into the matter,” said Adhikari. “As per the clause 13 and 16 of the Provincial Assembly Election Act 2074 BS, Manange is not eligible to join the state parliament.”

Manange, who was on the run following the arrest warrant, was arrested in Kathmandu in April 2018. He was kept in Dillibazaar Prison until his release on December 20, 2018.

After getting out of prison, Manange had filed the application seeking oath at the provincial assembly secretariat along with a copy of election certificate issued by the Election Commission.

It was expected that the provincial assembly would allow Manange to take the oath after Resham Chaudhary, the main accused behind the Tikapur carnage, took the oath of office as a Lower House representative at the Parliament Secretariat in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, on Thursday.

Chaudhary was elected to the House of Representatives from Kailali-1 as a Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) candidate.

Winter session begins from today

The winter session of Gandaki Province Assembly will started from Monday. The meeting of the Parliamentary Business Advisory Committee decided about the winter session and also prepared schedule for the first meeting. As per the schedule, two bills will be tabled in the assembly and pass a condolence motion on the demise of provincial assembly member Tek Bahadur Gharti from Baglung.