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The ninth meeting of the CPN-UML Secretariat has concluded that the party did not get satisfactory results in the key posts in the recently held local level elections.

A secretariat meeting of the UML came up with the conclusion while deciding to focus on a new course after a thorough review on the election results.

Sharing the information about the meeting held at the Party Headquarters in Chyasal today, Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said results of the local level elections should be accepted after participating in the election since the sovereign franchise of citizens was exercised in the elections.

He shared that the meeting discussed reasons behind the poor results in the posts of mayor and chairperson, adding that a fact had been established that the CPN-UML had emerged as the largest party with 34 per cent of popular votes.

The meeting decided that the concerned committees would take action against those involved in betraying the party's candidates, the UML leader mentioned.

Leader Gyawali also stated that no party leader should engage in blame game against the party's main leadership.

The meeting also decided to organise orientation programme for the newly-elected people's representatives from the party on June 16 and 17 in Kathmandu.

Similarly, the meeting also formed some departments of the party.

The main opposition CPN-UML demanded resignation of Finance Minister Janardan Sharma.

Speaking at the meeting of the House of Representatives, party Vice-Chairman and former Finance Minister Surendra Pandey demanded resignation of the Finance Minister saying that it is not morally appropriate for him to remain in the post after questions have been raised pertaining to changing tax rates on the eve of the budget presentation.

Saying that the issue of tax is highly confidential and a matter of national security, he said that the matter should be investigated.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota said that his serious attention has been drawn on the issue after the UML lawmakers stood from their seats in a gesture of protest demanding answers from the Finance Minister.

Annapurna Post, a leading broadsheet Nepali daily newspaper, in its Monday’s edition made a damning allegation that Sharma changed the tax rates by using a chartered accountant and a retired senior non-gazetted officer on the night of May 28, a day before the budget was presented in the Parliament.

Earlier on Monday, some lawmakers also demanded clarification from Sharma and investigation into the matter.

Indian money laundering investigators questioned opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday as his supporters jostled with police outside the financial crime-fighting agency’s office in the capital, New Delhi, Reuters reported.

The investigation by the Enforcement Directorate is linked to a nine-year old complaint by a member of parliament from prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Gandhi and his mother, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi.

A spokesman for the opposition Congress Party said the Gandhis and the party had done nothing illegal and the investigation was politically motivated.

“We will fight undeterred, we will fight fearlessly,” the Congress spokesman, Randeep Singh Surjewala, told reporters.

“We will answer every question.”

A spokesman for the finance ministry’s Enforcement Directorate, which investigates money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, was not available for comment.

Police blocked off some parts New Delhi with barricades as Gandhi, along with Congress leaders and party workers, attempted to march to the directorate’s offices for the questioning.

Gandhi was questioned for about three hours, another Congress official said, adding that police had detained scores of party supporters outside, according to Reuters.

The BJP lawmaker behind the complaint, Subramanian Swamy, accused the Gandhis of forming a shell company and illegally gaining control of property worth $300 million.

The assets had belonged to a firm that published the National Herald newspaper, founded in 1937 by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was Rahul Gandhi’s great grandfather.

The UK government has published plans to get rid of parts of the post-Brexit deal it agreed with the EU in 2019, BBC reported.

It wants to change the Northern Ireland Protocol to make it easier for some goods to flow from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

But the EU opposes the move, saying that going back on the deal breaches international law.

The government said there is "no other way" of safeguarding essential interests of the UK. 

It argues the term "necessity" is used in international law to justify situations where "the only way a state can safeguard an essential interest" is by disapplying - or breaking - another international obligation.

It adds that action taken must not "seriously impair" essential interests of other states. 

The alterations are set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, to be debated and voted on by Parliament, according to BBC.

The government is promising to remove "unnecessary" paperwork on goods checks and that businesses in Northern Ireland will get the same tax breaks as those elsewhere in the UK.

The bill will also ensure that any trade disputes are resolved by "independent arbitration" and not by the European Court of Justice, it adds.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it was "a reasonable, practical solution to the problems facing Northern Ireland" and that the UK could "only make progress through negotiations if the EU are willing to change the protocol itself", adding: "At the moment they aren't."

"We are very clear that we're acting in line with the law," she said, BBC reported.

The government said it would prefer a "negotiated solution" with the EU that avoids the need for the bill to become law.