Ministers bring two parties together

Thimphu, July 25: After several round of deliberate discussion, the leaders of already announced All People’s Party and Bhutan People’s United Party along with the five royal ministers come to the consensus for a new party  Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT).

The five ministers, including Prime Minister Khandu Wangchuk, will resign at the end of this month to join politics. The newly announced party is led by Home Minister Jigme Y. Thinley.

Other ministers of the new combination include Yeshey Zimba, Wangdi Norbu and Ugyen Tshering, who joined hands on July 21 to run against royal relative Sangey Ngedup’s People Democratic Party.

Officers of the party would be elected after the ministers formally disjoin from the government by next month.

DPT in its political manifesto articulated to work for poverty alleviation, decreasing rich-poor gap by revisiting strategies for equitable development and reducing the proportion of population living below the poverty line from 31.7 percent to 20 percent in five years’ time. Bhutan News Service