Kathmandu, Feb. 22:His Majesty the King has accepted the resignations tendered by 11 cabinet ministers late last week, days after Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai’s leadership came under question from 58 MPs of the ruling party.

“The resignations have been accepted in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990,” according to a press notice issued today by the Principal Press Secretariat of His Majesty the King.

His Majesty has asked the Prime Minister to look after the portfolios of the five cabinet ministers – Works and Transport Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka, Water Resources Minister Gobinda Raj Joshi, Health Minister Ram Baran Yadav, Law Minister Tarini Dutta Chataut and Forest Minister Mahantha Thakur.

All five ministers, accompanied by three state and three assistant ministers, had resigned en masse on Friday saying they were under moral pressure to do so since 58 Congress legislators had demanded change of their parliamentary leader.

The state ministers who resigned were Surendra Prasad Chaudhary, Ram Bahadur Gurung and Mohammad Aftab Aalam. Likewise, the assistant ministers, who tendered their resignations were Narayan Singh Pun, Surendra Hamal and Narendra Bikram Nembang.

The resignations remained unconfirmed until Monday, when 87 of the 137 members of the Congress Parliamentary Party took part in hectic discussions on the no confidence motion moved against Prime Minister Bhattarai by the rebel MPs.

Bhattarai did not participate in that meeting asking the party to defer yesterday’s discussion, saying he would be able to respond to all charges against him only if the meeting was postponed by a few days.

After over four hours of discussions the Parliamentary Party unanimously agreed to put off the agenda to February 26. This upcoming meeting is expected to finalise the MPs’ demand to change the leadership