Amid the struggle to prove 40 percent share of the Central Working Committee in the newly announced party, the Pashupati Shumsher Rana-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Prajatantrik) is refusing to receive the Election Commission’s letter calling for verification of the signatures it submitted for party registration.

The Kamal Thapa-led RPP, the fourth largest party in Parliament, was split on August 6 mainly over a dispute whether to join the government. The Rana faction submitted a list of 67 Central Working Committee members and 16 lawmakers to the EC while applying for party registration.

The Act related to political parties requires a splinter group to prove at least 40 percent share in both the CWC and the Parliamentary Party to retain lawmakers deserting the original party.

The RPP (Prajatantrik) has 16 lawmakers, which is more than 40 percent of the PP number. However, there are questions over the authenticity of the signatures of 67 CWC members as some of them have disowned them.

“They [RPP-P leaders] are avoiding our letter calling for verification of signatures,” said a joint-secretary at the EC on condition of anonymity. “We are publishing a public notice on a newspaper.”

The Rana-led faction needs to prove the support of 62 CWC members. RPP leaders claim that the party has the support of hardly 50 central members. The EC notice posted on its website asks all the 153 CWC members and 37 lawmakers to be present in its office on Sunday to verify the signatures. “We will receive the letter tomorrow but we’re not sure if we’ll verify it,” said Deepak Bohara, a senior leader of the Rana-led party.

RPP leaders, however, say it was “illogical” on the EC’s part to call all the central members and lawmakers to verify the signatures. “The EC should have invited only those signing the document. The decision to call everyone is a conspiracy against us,” said Bhuwan Pathak, spokesperson for the party. Some nine months after merger between the RPP-Nepal and the RPP, the unified party split last week.

The RPP has “ousted” lawmakers Sunil Thapa, Bohara, Babita Moktan, Biraj Bista, Rajya Laxmi Shrestha and Resham Lama from the party. If the RPP (Prajatantrik) fails to prove 40 percent share in the CWC, the RPP will write to the Parliament Secretariat to sack the lawmakers as well.