The Rastriya Swatantra Party has expelled its party member Dhaka Kumar Shrestha from the party and sacked him as a lawmaker. Shrestha was earlier suspended as a lawmaker.

A central committee meeting took the decision on Wednesday.

The meeting also nominated Bindabasini Kansakar to replace Shrestha in the parliament.

According to RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane, disciplinary action against Shrestha was taken for being involved in unconstitutional and immoral acts.

Since Shrestha will also lose his position as a lawmaker of the lower house, the party has recommended Kansakar to replace him, Lamichhane said.

RSP has decided to submit a nomination letter to the Election Commission for Kanskar’s election as a lawmaker under the proportional representation category.

Lamichhane has also assured that the party would cooperate with the government bodies investigating the matter.

“Shrestha has mentioned involvement of ‘a core team’ of the party behind his actions. However, we do not have any basis to investigate who else is involved in the team that he is referring to,” Lamichhane said during a press conference on Wednesday.

“If a government body were to launch an investigation into the matter, we would cooperate and help the government agency in the investigation.”

Shrestha on the other hand has stated that the accusations against him was merely a conspiracy to attack his party just ahead of the bypolls.

Lawmaker Shrestha has been embroiled in a corruption case after a recording of a phone conversation between him and controversial businessman Durga Prasain was leaked on Sunday.

Shrestha in the audio is heard saying that the Rastriya Swatantra Party leaders had demanded Rs25 million in return for making him health minister. In the leaked audio, he argues that he wanted the position “to bring about radical reform in the health sector” and he seeks financial support from Prasain.