KATHMANDU: Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) chairperson Upendra Yadav has accused the prime minister of shielding controversial ministers from his inner circle while pushing others to resign.
Yadav’s remarks came a day after his party formally withdrew support to the KP Sharma Oli-led government during a parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday.
On Thursday, he took to social media to vent his anger, particularly targeting Prime Minister Oli’s handling of the controversy surrounding Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Balram Adhikari.
Amid growing calls for Adhikari’s resignation over his alleged involvement in a recent audio scandal linked to procurement irregularities, Yadav accused PM Oli of deliberately protecting him.
“Don’t worry, Minister Balram Adhikari doesn’t need to resign,” Yadav wrote. “As long as ‘Ba’ rules from Baluwatar and Chyasal, his clan-partners have a license to do anything.”
Yadav also drew a stark contrast between Adhikari’s case and that of Rajkumar Gupta, a Madhesi-origin minister who was reportedly forced to resign earlier this week from the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration.
“Balram Adhikari is implicated in the same case and audio scandal as Gupta, but because he belongs to the same caste-clan as ‘Ba’, he remains untouched and protected,” Yadav said.
The former deputy prime minister further argued that if a Madhesi, Tharu, Dalit, or Janajati minister had been involved in the same controversy, Prime Minister Oli would have demanded their resignation without hesitation.
Yadav accused Oli of deepening ethnic bias, class favoritism, and discriminatory governance under his leadership. He claimed the lack of accountability around Adhikari, even after multiple pieces of evidence surfaced in the media, reflects Oli’s commitment to what he termed “clan-based protectionism.”
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