A day after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba fired four ministers of Janata Samajbadi Party, the chief minister in Madhesh Province sacked three ministers of the provincial government representing Nepali Congress on Friday.

Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut of Janata Samajbadi Party sacked Ram Saroj Yadav, minister for Physical Infrastructure Development; Om Prakash Sharma, minister for Water Supplies and Energy Development and Birendra Prasad Singh, minister for Women, Children, Youth and Sports.

“As per the recommendation of Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut Province Chief Hari Shankar Mishra has relieved three ministers and assigned the duties of the three ministers to Chief Minister Raut,” states a statement issued by the office of the Province Chief.

According to Manish Suman, spokesperson of Janata Samajbadi Party, his party has taken a decision to reciprocate the action taken by the ruling coalition on Thursday by removing their ministers in the Madhesh Province.

However, the chief minister has not taken any action against the ministers representing the CPN (Unified Socialist) and CPN (Maoist Centre) that are partners in the ruling alliance led by Congress.

Currently Unified Socialist has three ministers–Pramod Kumar Yadav as minister for Law, Justice and Provincial Assembly; Nagendra Raya Yadav as state minister for the same ministry; and Shatrudhan Mahato as minister for Industry, Tourism and Forest. From the Maoist Centre, Bharat Prasad Shah is minister for Home Affairs and Communication and Rubi Kumari Karna is state minister for the same ministry.

Chief Minister Raut had telephoned the Congress ministers on Thursday evening and asked them to put in papers but the Congress party instructed them not to resign.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Deuba had sacked four federal ministers of Janata Samajbadi– Rajendra Shrestha, Mrigendra Kumar Singh, Pradeep Yadav and Mohammad Ishtiyak Rayi after the Madhesh-based party forged an electoral alliance with the CPN-UML.