KATHMANDU: Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Gauri Kumari Yadav resigned from her position on Thursday. She submitted her resignation to Prime Minister Balen Shah amidst a severe cooking gas shortage in the Kathmandu Valley.

According to the Prime Minister’s press coordinator Surendra Bajgain, Minister Yadav visited the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to tender her resignation. Members of her secretariat claimed that the Prime Minister’s political advisor, Asim Shah, had requested her resignation, citing her failure to manage the gas supply crisis. The Prime Minister’s secretariat has not commented on these claims.

During a parliamentary industry committee meeting on Wednesday, Minister Yadav attributed the gas shortage to a lack of cooperation from gas entrepreneurs and bureaucrats. She stated that the situation would not improve until gas industrialists were held accountable for their actions. During the same session, Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Badan Bhandari questioned the minister’s performance and demanded her resignation.

Sources from the minister’s secretariat alleged that she had been struggling with a lack of support from the Prime Minister’s office and frequent interference in ministerial affairs. Previously, tensions had reportedly flared between the Prime Minister’s secretariat and the minister over fuel pricing policies, with reports suggesting that the Prime Minister’s office had even considered police intervention regarding the matter at the time.

Meanwhile, during Thursday’s session of the House of Representatives, lawmaker Amaresh Kumar Singh claimed that Minister Yadav did not resign voluntarily but was instead dismissed. Minister Yadav, who was appointed on March 27 last year, served in the cabinet for 153 days.