The Rastriya Swatantra Party has decided to continue its support to the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government.

A central committee meeting of the party held on Monday took the decision to that effect.

The party, however, has not made any decision about the upcoming presidential election, according to Kabindra Burlakoti, the party’s joint general secretary.

“Both the eight-party alliance and the UML have been approaching us soliciting votes for their presidential candidates,” Burlakoti told the Post. “We have decided to wait for further developments as efforts to forge consensus among the parties are still on.”

The newly-forged alliance led by Nepali Congress has fielded Congress senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel as a common candidate against UML vice-chair Subas Nemang.

Earlier, on February 5, the party had decided to leave the government after Prime Minister Dahal refused to re-appoint party president Rabi Lamichhane as the Home Minister. The party, however, had decided to continue its support to the government.

The party’s central committee meeting also decided to contest the by-election in Chitwan-2.

“We have decided to register our party for the by-election purpose,” Burlakoti said, adding that a general consensus has been reached about the party’s candidate for the by-election.

The Election Commission has scheduled a by-election in Chitwan-2 for April 23 as the federal seat of the constituency went vacant after the Supreme Court order stripped Rabi Lamichhane of the position on charges of producing an invalid citizenship certificate while filing his candidacy.

RSP President Lamichhane has now reacquired the citizenship certificate through a new application process. So the party is likely to field Lamichhane, who had won the seat in November polls with a huge margin.

Earlier on Monday, the CPN-UML pulled out of the government, accusing Prime Minister Dahal of ‘working in a different fashion’.

Moreover, the party is riled by the prime minister’s direction to Minister for Foreign Affairs Bimala Rai Paudyal to cancel her Geneva trip. The party also decided to withdraw its support to the government that it helped form two months ago.