The CK Raut-led Janamat Party recently left the government. Abdul Khan had represented the party in the cabinet with the portfolio of the Ministry of Water Supply. Pratik Ghimire of ApEx caught up with Khan to talk about the party’s plans for the April 23 by-election and other political matters. Excerpts from the interview:   Why did you leave the government? Our impression is that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other coalition partners didn’t value our participation. We felt that several times. First, they promised to give us the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, but then they balked and handed us the reins of the Ministry of Water Supply instead. When the coalition changed, without our demand, Dahal publicly pledged to us the Ministry of Industry, only to eat his words later on. We felt humiliated and left the government.

Like other political parties, your party has also started a power game, hasn’t it?

If we were in the power game, why would we quit the government instead of bargaining? Our party is always committed to our values and we will never be a part of dirty politics.  Other Madhes-based parties enjoy the luxuries of Kathmandu and forget their constituencies. Isn’t your party on the same path? That’s not true. Our party chair and all of the parliamentarians visit their constituencies often and pay heed to the problems of local communities. Sadly, our performance is short of public expectations. How are your party’s by-poll preparations going on? The preps are going great. Our main focus is on Bara-2 where we enjoy widespread public support. Bara-2 is the pocket area of Janata Samjbadi Party. They won the Nov 20 polls there without a coalition. Do you think your party will be able to defeat Upendra Yadav this time, when he has a ruling coalition behind him? Our candidate Shivachandra Prashad Kushwaha is from Bara-2 itself (he is not an outsider), which is our main strength. He was defeated in the Nov 20 polls in the same constituency with only 400 votes. At that time, he was contesting from a different party. Our candidate has huge public support. What’s more, the people have already witnessed our commitment and it has become clear to them that we are different from other political parties. So, he will get more votes this time as he has joined our party. As for Yadav (the rival candidate), he failed to win from his home constituency in Saptari. How will he win in Bara-2 as a tourist candidate? We will win comfortably.