The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) on Friday picked vice-chair Dol Prasad Aryal as its acting president after the Supreme Court earlier in the day said party chief Rabi Lamichhane does not have a valid Nepali citizenship and is ineligible for holding a lawmaker position, and by extension, party chief.

The emergency meeting of the party’s central committee convened late on Friday evening decided to entrust vice president Aryal with the responsibility of leading the party in the changed context, said Ganesh Karki, press coordinator of the party.

The central committee meeting has also named Aryal as its parliamentary party leader, another position held by Lamichhane. A parliamentary party meeting subsequently endorsed the recommendation of the central committee to name Aryal its leader.

The party had on Monday elected lawmaker Biraj Bhakta Shrestha as deputy leader of its parliamentary party.

Aryal is currently the minister for labour, employment and social security.

Minister for Education Shishir Khanal and minister of state for health Toshima Karki are other ministers from the party in the incumbent Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government.

Lamichhane was leading the party in government as deputy prime minister and home minister.

Party’s lawmaker Indira Rana Magar was elected deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, defeating Nepali Congress candidate Mukta Kumari Yadav, last week.

Section 14 of the Political Party Act 2017 mandates that one must be a Nepali citizen to become a member of a political party. As the top court invalidated Lamichhane’s citizenship, he eventually lost the positions including the party president.

Meanwhile, the party has postponed all its scheduled programmes from Saturday onward. As per the decision of the central committee, the plenums of the provincial committees and other party-building activities from January 28 have been postponed until further notice, party general secretary Mukul Dhakal said in a statement.

The party that won 20 seats in the House of Representatives in November will now have 19.