Education Minister Pun steps down, files for independent candidacy from Myagdi

Minister for Education, Science and Technology Mahabir Pun has resigned from his post on Tuesday, the day of the nomination filing date for First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) candidacy for the March 5 House of Representatives election.

He has filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Myagdi district, which has only one electoral constituency.

Pun was appointed in the Sushila Karki-led interim council of ministers on September 22, 2025, along with Kharel and others. His tenure lasted for about four months in the interim government, which was tasked with conducting the election.

Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal confirmed Pun’s resignation in one of his Facebook posts. 

Pun, who usually communicates with the public through his social media accounts, has not said anything about his resignation. However, in one of his recent posts, he wrote that he donated all the medals he has received in national and international recognition to the education ministry.

According to him, he had put the recognitions for sale to fund the Birgunj Agriculture Tools Factory and the National Innovation Center Nepal for four years. But he did not succeed. Additionally, he plans to sell a piece of land in Pokhara under his ownership to fund the tools factory.

Pun’s resignation followed Bablu Gupta and Jagdish Kharel, who stepped down from their ministerial posts on Monday to contest the election on Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) tickets from Siraha-1 and Lalitpur-2, respectively.

Following the series of ministerial resignations, the responsibilities of the education, youth and sports, and communications and information technology portfolios have been taken over by Prime Minister Karki.

As the election approaches in less than two months, one of the major concerns of these late-hour resignations is that cabinet members failed to disclose their political ambitions early on and instead deliberately chose to depart at the last hour, leaving their respective portfolios vacant.

This weakens the government’s stability and efficiency at a crucial pre-election period, while raising doubts about the impartiality of officials, who may be positioning themselves for electoral gains.