By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 21: The longstanding rift in the ruling party has culminated in the dissolution of the House of Representatives in three years after it was constituted and fixing new dates for general elections on April 30 and May 10 next year.
The dissolution of the House of Representatives came as a surprise to many including for the Cabinet ministers and leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Here are comments by a few leaders and lawmakers.

NCP vice chairman Bamdev Gautam
The dissolution of the Federal Parliament is unconstitutional, wrong and condemnable.
Issuing a press note on his Facebook account, Gautam stated that the move of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is also one of the NCP chairmen, to dissolve the parliament would promote political instability in the country and bring down all norms and values of democratic federal republic.

NC leader Ram Chandra Paudel
This is against the Constitution, values of democracy and against the nation. The Constitution of Nepal, 2072 has not provisioned for the dissolution of the parliament.

Khimlal Bhattarai, chief whip of NCP in NA
The move of the Prime Minister was a compulsive step.
“He was in an uneasy situation since long and has been unable to deliver as per people’s expectations due to the party dispute,” he added. Bhattarai further said that it was the time to tell people about the uneasiness they faced while implementing the democratic system in the country.
“Sovereign people have the ultimate say to decide serious issues in a democracy and the move is quite natural,” he added. According to him, the Prime Minister’s several honest efforts failed to resolve the disputes and he was forced to take the unfortunate move.

Balkrishna Khand, chief whip of Nepali Congress
The move of the Prime Minister was against the Constitution. “There are no such provisions in the Constitution granting the Prime Minister the rights to dissolve the House.
This incident has justified that in lack of political commitment a majority or two-thirds majority government could not ensure political stability.
However, the latest move of the Prime Minister has invited an accident, he said.

Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, NSP leader
In the new Constitution, we had decided the term of the House of Representatives for five years in order to ensure political stability. Considering the political instabilities in the past, we had made sure that no instabilities would be invited by dissolving the parliament before the end of its tenure.
By inviting political uncertainty like before, this decision has torn apart our efforts to improve the system from the Constituent Assembly. This is against democratic values and the Constitution.
This irresponsible step taken by PM Oli, despite the Nepal Communist Party being in government with a two-thirds majority is not in favour of democracy, and this should be opposed from everywhere.  

Gagan Thapa, NC leader
The Constitution has provisioned a five-year term of the parliament. The decision to dissolve the parliament is unconstitutional and undemocratic. It is certain that the decision will be subject to Constitutional interpretation. No matter how the Constitution is interpreted, the legitimacy of the votes given to the NCP by citizens has ended along with this move.