Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties have demanded resignation of the Information and Communication Minister Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta for his remarks that Madhes could secede from the state. �

The lawmakers from the ruling UCPN (Maoist), major opposition parties Nepali Congress and CPN- UML and some fringe parties asked Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to expel Gupta from the cabinet as he challenged Nepal’s territorial integrity.

Maoist lawmaker Ekraj Bhandari, NC lawmaker Arjun Joshi, CPN-UML’s Bijaya Poudel, Janashakti Party’s Prakash Chandra Lohani and Rastriya Janamorcha’s Chitra Bahadur K.C, among others, flayed Gupta’s ‘anti-national’ remarks.   �

Minister Gupta, who heads the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Republican), had warned that Madhes could separate itself from Nepal “if the demands of Madhesi people are not addressed”. nepalnews.com