KATHMANDU: The Parliamentary Party meeting of the CPN-UML party’s Sudurpaschim Province has defied the party’s Standing Committee (SC) decision to withdraw support from the province government.

According to sources, the PP meeting held today decided to continue the support given to the province government.

As many as 20 party lawmakers participated in the meeting.

Three lawmakers — Ratan Thapa, Galbu Bohara and Liladhar Bhatta – who are close to Chairman KP Oli faction of the party did not participate in the meeting convened by Prakash Shah, Minister for Internal Affairs and Law.

UML’s Khanal-Nepal faction has a strong hold in the party in Sudurpaschim.

Today’s meeting was called after the UML decided to withdraw its support to the province government.

The CPN-UML has 25 lawmakers in the state assembly, and 27 lawmakers are required to form the government.

In the province government led by Chief Minister Trilochan Bhatt, UML has Prakash Bahadur Shah as Minister for Internal Affairs and Law, Krishna Raj Subedi as Minister for Social Development and Maya Bhatt as Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment.

All three are from Nepal-Khanal faction of UML.