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In a sensational charge Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has claimed in report by a news agency that efforts are being made to oust him after his government redrew the country’s political map by incorporating three strategically key Indian territories.
“Efforts are being made to remove me from power, but that will not succeed,” Oli claimed, without naming any person or country. The hint though was enough to suggest India.
Nepal this month completed the process of redrawing the country’s political map through a Constitutional amendment, incorporating three strategically important Indian areas.
India has termed as “untenable” the “artificial enlargement” of the territorial claims by Nepal after its Parliament unanimously approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas which India maintains belong to it.
The India-Nepal bilateral ties came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.
He said nobody has openly asked him to quit. “But I have smelt undercurrent movements,” Oli said while speaking at an event to commemorate the 69th birth anniversary of the popular leader of the Nepal Communist Party late Madan Bhandari at the Prime Minister’s residence.
“There have been various kinds of activities in the embassies and hotels,” he claimed. “If you listen to the news media from Delhi, you will get the gesture.” He said some Nepalese leaders were also involved in the game to remove him immediately.
The differences between Prime Minister Oli and his opponents including the ruling party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” have surfaced during the ongoing Standing Committee meeting of the party.
Oli, who faced criticism within his party for skipping the first and the second day of the Standing Committee meetings, attended the third meeting on Saturday, but briefly. He, however, did not speak at the meeting.
“In the past when I signed trade agreements with Beijing, my minority government collapsed. But this time we have a government with a full-fledged majority, so no one can remove me now,” Oli said on Sunday.
“I did not commit any mistake by claiming our land, which has been snatched from us for the past 58 years after Nepal enjoyed the rights over these areas for 146 years,” Oli said.
