Tumbahamphe resigns to let NCP contest speaker’s election

Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe says she resigned from the position so as to let the ruling Nepal Communist Party field its candidate for the speaker’s election that the House of Representatives will plan today. Tumbahamphe’s resignation comes one day after two chairpersons of the party decided to field Agni Prasad Sapkota for the top parliamentary position. Before that, she was resisting the party’s directive for resignation, staking her claim in the position.Since the constitution requires the speaker and the deputy speaker to represent different parties, Tumbahamphe’s resignation was a must for the NCP to contest the speaker’s election.

Hence, Tumbahamphe, while chairing the House of Representatives meeting today, announced, “I would like to inform the respected House that I decided to clear the roads.” Meanwhile, the next meeting of the House has been scheduled for 4 pm today, during which the senior-most member will announce the schedule for the speaker’s election.

Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe is a Nepali politician and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. She has been active in politics for more than 40 years as a communist leader in Eastern Nepal. She has a PhD in political science from Tribhuwan University. Before becoming the deputy speaker of the house, she was the central committee member of CPN UML. She was nominated to be the ambassador of Nepal to Israel in 2016 but the cabinet was dissolved before her nomination was confirmed. Vijaya Subba, another prominent leader of CPN UML, is her brother.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

She was born in Taplejung District. She went to school in Jhapa District. She took a break from politics to pursue her doctorate following the successful 2006 revolution. She went on to achieve a PhD in Political Science from Tribhuwan University. Her PhD thesis on "political movement of women in Nepal" was titled Nepalma rajnitik mahila andolan: vislesanatmak adhyayan B.S. 2047-2060.

POLITICAL CAREER

She has been active in politics for at least 40 years. She has been politically active from Morang District. She joined active politics as a member of CPN ML affiliated student union, ANNFSU. She was central deputy chair of ANNFSU at the time she graduated from student politics in 2052 BS (1995-96). She registered as a member of CPN ML in 2047 BS (1990-91 CE) and was elected to the central committee of CPN UML from the ninth general convention in 2071 BS (2014-15). She was also the Morang District incharge of the party, before its merger with CPN MC in 2018.

She was nominated for the post of ambassador of Nepal to Israel by the First Oli cabinet in 2016, but the government was dissolved before her nomination could be confirmed. She is considered to be a close ally of Prime minister KP Sharma Oli, in addition to being particularly close to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

She was elected to the federal parliament under the proportional representation system, nominated by Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) (CPN UML), and elected as Deputy Speaker with the support of her party CPN UML, as well as Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) (CPN MC) of the left alliance, defeating Pushpa Bhusal (Gautam) of Nepali Congress, on 15 March 2018 by a margin of 143 votes. Her election as deputy speaker was controversial due to the fact that the constitution prohibits having both speaker and deputy speaker from the same party, which has been the case since the merger of CPN UML and CPN MC. Following the election as deputy speaker, she resigned membership of her party as per custom. She was 53 years old when elected to deputy speaker.She resigns as Deputy Speaker on 22 December,on 17 February 2020 is appointed as the Minister for Law and Justice,she took oath from President Bidya Devi Bhandari.She is the younger sister of UML (now NCP) leader Bijay Subba, who is also the central committee member and a member of House of Representatives from NCP through proportional representation system. Subba is said to have been inspired to pursue his own doctorate (in "the political movement of indigenous peoples") from the example of Tumbahamphe. While Subba had once defected from the party and started his own party, Tumbahamphe has been a life-long member of CPN UML. Tumbahamphe famously challenged Bhim Acharya to a trainer dual once, after Acharya reportedly suggested a need to bring in trainers from the Capital to educate party cadres in her district. She supports increasing government expenditure on public education.