By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, July 29: Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader and former minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa and his loyals joined the Nepali Congress on Tuesday.
Organising a ceremony at the party central office in Sanepa, Lalitpur, and the Nepali Congress welcomed Thapa along with other 13 RPP leaders in the party.
NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba distributed them party membership of the NC.
Welcoming them, Deuba said the party would not make any discrimination to the new entrants in the party.
He said that unification among the democratic forces was the need of the hour as the present governments was trying to curtail democratic rights of the people.
He accused the government of trying to control the media, tape phone calls and resort to other anti-democratic activities.
NC senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel said the communist government was not showing respect to the system enshrined in the Constitution.
NC vice chair Bimalendra Nidhi said Thapa`s father late Surya Bahadur Thapa was liberal leader even he was with the Panchayat.
NC general secretary Dr. Shashanka Koirala said the disciplinary action against NC leaders was wrong.
Leader Thapa said he joined the NC to give energy to the democratic system.
He said the NC was a party which had led several democratic movements and made people sovereign.
He said his family has relations with the NC for 65 years.
However, NC has not finalised any post for Thapa in the party.
Thapa’s entry in the Nepali Congress has strengthened NC’s position in Dhankuta and a few districts in State 2.