Satya Narayan Mandal has been removed as the parliamentary party leader of Nepal Communist Party in Province 2 as the party split at the centre continues to cause ripples across the provinces.

A meeting of the parliamentary party members close to the faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal on Tuesday decided to oust Mandal as the parliamentary party leader. Mandal belongs to the faction led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

The meeting also decided to appoint Shatrughan Mahato as the new parliamentary party leader, said Bechi Lungeli, the Nepal Communist Party chief whip in the provincial assembly.

“We have informed Speaker Saroj Yadav about the parliamentary party decision,” she said.

The Nepal Communist Party has 32 members in Province 2 assembly. Nineteen of them are from the Dahal-Nepal faction and the remaining 13 from the Oli camp.

The Nepal Communist Party split on December 22 after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s December 20 move of dissolving the House of Representatives. Following the general elections of 2017, the party had formed majority governments in six of the seven provinces, except in Province 2 where the party was the main opposition.

With the party split into two, Nepal Communist Party has lost the status of main opposition in the province.

The tug-of-war between the two factions is also playing out in other provinces where the Nepal Communist Party is in the governing seat.

So far, no-confidence motion has been registered by the rival faction against Sherdhan Rai and Dormani Poudel, the chief ministers of Province 1 and Bagmati respectively, both close to the Oli-faction.

On Monday, the Dahal-Nepal group relieved Shankar Pokharel and Prithvi Subba Gurung from the posts of the party’s provincial in-charge of Lumbini and Gandaki provinces respectively. The meeting chaired by Madhav Kumar Nepal also decided to appoint Yuvaraj Gyawali as the party in-charge of Lumbini and Devendra Paudel of Gandaki.

Last week, Bhim Acharya, of the Dahal-Nepal faction, was voted to replace Chief Minister Sherdhan Rai as the parliamentary party leader in Province 1. In return, Rai suspended 15 provincial assembly members of the rival faction for three months.