Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s Facebook following has significantly decreased after a post by Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah was deleted from the platform.
Oli’s follower count, which was previously around 666,000, dropped to 603,000 by Wednesday morning.
The decrease in followers is attributed to supporters of Balen Shah unfollowing Oli on Facebook as a form of protest. This followed the deletion of a Facebook post by Mayor Shah, in which he called on PM Oli to arrest Rekha Kumari Sharma, a UML provincial assembly member accused of child labor offenses. Facebook allegedly removed the post due to mass reporting by UML cadres.
In response to the deletion, Balen Shah posted again, stating, “Don’t remove the post, government. Arrest the culprit. If I am wrong, arrest me; if not, arrest the offender.”
Sharma is accused of employing a 14-year-old girl as a domestic worker at her residence in Kathmandu for the past eight years. The girl was recently rescued by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office.
In the deleted post, Mayor Shah had included a photograph of Sharma and wrote, “This is UML provincial assembly member Rekha Sharma. She has been holding a minor captive for the past eight years, abusing her under the guise of domestic work and beating her daily. Despite the efforts of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City to take action over the past two months, this government has not arrested her. Even the court has ordered a case to be filed.”
