The Rastriya Swatantra Party has decided not to quit the government immediately.

A joint meeting of the party’s central committee and the parliamentary party held on Thursday decided to wait for two more days before taking a final call on whether to quit the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government.

According to the party’s spokesperson Mukul Dhakal, the meeting decided to wait for two more days upon request from Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, who also chairs a high-level political mechanism formed to advise the government.

Dhakal said the meeting decided to ask the leaders of coalition parties to summon a meeting of the high-level mechanism. 

Dhakal further said the party will not backtrack from its claim to lead the Home Ministry. Talking to journalists after emerging from the meeting, Dhakal said the party will decide on the name to lead the ministerial berth.

The meeting was held to decide whether to leave the government following Prime Minister Dahal’s reluctance to give home portfolio to the party. RSP President Rabi Lamichhane was heading the home ministry before the Supreme Court invalidated his citizenship.

The Supreme Court on January 27 had stripped RSP Chairman Rabi Lamichhane of his lawmaker position, saying that the citizenship certificate he produced to contest the parliamentary election was invalid. The cancellation of his citizenship certificate also cost him the positions of the home minister and party president. But on Sunday, Lamichhane reacquired citizenship from the District Administration Office, Kathmandu and his party subsequently reinstated him as party president.

After Lamichhane’s exit, Prime Minister Dahal kept the home ministry to himself. UML Chairman Oli however has been pressing the prime minister to reassign the portfolio of home ministry to the Rastriya Swatantra Party, as agreed among the coalition partners during the initial power-sharing deal.