After alliance with CPN-UML, Nepal’s Prime Minister ‘Prachanda’ will seek trust vote on Wednesday

Kathmandu, March 12 (PTI) Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is set to seek a trust vote from Parliament on Wednesday, days after the Maoist leader quit the Nepali Congress and formed a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal. (Unified Marxist–Leninist) Party.

Prachanda, a former guerrilla leader associated with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the third largest party in the House of Representatives (HoR), on Sunday sent a letter to the Parliament Secretariat, indicating that he has severed ties with the Nepalese government. Congress.

According to constitutional provisions, the Prime Minister has to seek a trust vote after any ally party withdraws support from the ruling coalition. Prachanda is required to prove his majority after losing the support of his previous ally, Nepali Congress, which is the largest party in HOR.

Prachanda has now formed a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (CPN-UML) led by former Prime Minister KP Oli, who was considered a top critic of the Maoist leader.

The new government needs at least 138 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives to win the confidence vote. Wednesday’s trust vote will be the third by 69-year-old Prachanda since he assumes office in December 2022.

The Prachanda-led coalition government currently enjoys the support of 150 members in the lower house of parliament.

The second largest party in HOR, CPN-UML led by former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, has 76 seats, while the third largest party, CPN-Maoist Centre, has 32 seats. Similarly, Rashtriya Swatantra Party, Janata Samajwadi Party and CPN-Unified Socialist have 20, 12 and 10 seats respectively.

Of the total 78 CPN-UML MPs in the lower house, one member has died, while another is suspended.

The CPN-Maoist Center has issued a whip to all its members of the HoR to be present in the lower house on March 13.

This is the third time that Prime Minister Prachanda is seeking trust vote in the House in less than one and a half years.

Prachanda became Prime Minister for the third time on December 25, 2022 with the support of Nepali Congress.

Last year, Prachanda faced a test of strength when Oli-led CPN-UML withdrew its support to the Prachanda-led government following differences over supporting the main opposition party’s candidate for the presidential election. .

In the 2017 elections, Prachanda and Oli merged their parties and won a comfortable majority. Oli became the Prime Minister, but their partnership ended midway due to differences between them.

Nepali Congress Party has asked its members to vote against the Prachanda government.

Meanwhile, the five political parties involved in the ruling coalition on Tuesday reached a seven-point agreement pledging support to the Prachanda-led government.

A meeting of the parties held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar decided to promote mutual cooperation to make government delivery more “effective” and “move forward” towards good governance, social justice and prosperity.

The meeting was attended by the top leadership of the five parties and also agreed to expeditiously conclude the transitional justice issue, the remaining work of the peace process and matters related to the establishment of lasting peace on a consensus basis.

They also agreed to formulate a common minimum program among the parties in government and to come up with government policies and programs capable of promoting national interests and strengthening democracy.

There has been consensus among the political parties to move forward on the path of political stability while strengthening national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as socialism-oriented socio-economic development.

The five parties agreed to move forward to fulfill people’s aspirations for good governance, development and social justice as well as to give priority to issues of national interest and concerns.

Meanwhile, President Ramchandra Paudel on Tuesday administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly elected Speaker of the National Assembly, Narayan Prasad Dahal.

Dahal, the ruling coalition’s common candidate, was elected Speaker of the Upper House by securing 39 votes in the 59-strong House.

Dahal, younger brother of Prime Minister Prachanda, was nominated to the National Assembly in 2022 by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on the recommendation of the then Sher Bahadur Deuba government. However, he has a long political history.

The upper house of the Parliament has 59 members, but currently it has 58 members.

(This report has been published as part of an auto-generated syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, there have been no edits to the copy by ABP Live.)