Nepal Defence Minister Dr Minendra Rijal resigns after failing to secure party post

Nepal Defence Minister and senior Nepali Congress leader Dr Minendra Rijal on Thursday announced his resignation after he failed to receive expected votes for the post of his party’s general secretary. 

Rijal, who had filed his candidacy for the post of general secretary of the party, announced his resignation on Twitter. 

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Announcing the decision on Twitter, Rijal said, “I have decided to resign from the post of the Minister of Defense in view of the clear message received from the preliminary results in the post of General Secretary. As soon as the final result is out, I will submit my resignation to the Prime Minister.” (Translated to English).

The early results of the election put him in fifth place out of the six candidates. Till now, out of the 3,220 votes, Rijal received only 566 votes. In comparison, another candidate Gagan Thapa received 2,101 votes, while Bishwa Prakash Sharma 1,287 votes. 

Rijal was appointed as Defence Minister in the month of October in the process of cabinet expansion which was led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. 

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The 14th general convention of the ruling Nepali Congress started on Friday. Earlier, Prime Minister Deuba won the election of the president of the Nepali Congress by securing 2,733 votes during the party’s ongoing General Convention. 

He defeated Shekhar Koirala, who was contesting while other presidential candidates gave up in the second phase of the election.