Under pressure, the party has a called a meeting of its political committee for Monday morning to decide Singh´s fate. Party sources said the committee is likely to ask Singh to step down.[break]
"The meeting will take decision to recall Minister Bhandari as the main opposition parties -- Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML are likely to incresae pressure for his resignation following the resignation by Minister Sah," a senior MPRF leader told Republica on condition of anonymity.
The leader said that even the party does not want to prolong the ongoing deadlock in parliament by retaining the minister.
"We also don´t want to put the government in trouble by sparing a minister," the leader said about the general feeling in the party following the controversy.
Minister Bhandari, who is also a central leader of the Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D), during a function in the capital on September 26, had said that nothing can prevent the 22 districts of the Tarai from seceding if the state continued to be indifferent toward their concerns.
According to another leader of MPRF-D, the party has made up its mind to take a decision on Singh before Monday´s parliamentary proceedings that start at 1 pm.
Opposition parties, NC and CPN-UML, that have taken strong exception to Bhandari and Sah, have been obstructing parliament meeting since Friday.
On Saturday, a meeting of the top leaders of the UCPN (Maoist) and the United Democratic Madhesi Front, had concluded that the respective parties should settle the controversy involving their minsters -- Sah and Bhandari.
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