Nepal PM to take test of strength for fourth time amid Oppn protest in parliament

Kathmandu [Nepal], May 17 (ANI): Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda will seek his fourth vote of confidence on Monday amid ongoing disruption and chaos in parliament, officials said.

The latest vote of confidence comes after the withdrawal of support by the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal and within 18 months of Dahal taking office.

“Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has written to House Speaker Debraj Aryal. The PMO sent the letter stating that he (Dahal) will seek a vote of confidence on May 20. Preparations are already underway for the vote of confidence,” Shekhar Adhikari, press advisor to House Speaker Ghimire told ANI over the phone.

The decision of a trust vote comes at a time when the opposition Nepali Congress have been holding protests within the parliament complex, demanding the formation of a parliamentary investigation committee to probe cooperative fraud allegedly involving Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane.

Earlier, on Thursday, a scuffle broke out between lawmakers in the Opposition and the ruling alliance in the Lower House of the Nepalese parliament on the alleged fraud involving the minister.

The situation turned tense after Speaker Ghimire invited Deputy PM and Home Minister Lamichhane to the rostrum and address the meeting amid protests by the Nepali Congress.

Nepali Congress lawmakers, who had been disrupting the House proceedings for weeks, raised slogans demanding the formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the alleged cooperative fraud and deliver justice to the victims.

Following the announcement by the Speaker, inviting Home Minister Lamichhane to the rostrum, the CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) lawmakers, seated in the front row of the Opposition benches, erupted in raucous protests.

In the live feed from parliament, former prime minister and chairman of CPN-UML, KP Sharma Oli, was seen attempting to clear the way for the Home Minister as he was blocked by the agitating Opposition lawmakers.

Oli and Congress vice president Dhanraj Gurung were also engaged in a heated argument. Other lawmakers from both sides subsequently joined the melee. The Congress lawmakers were visibly angry after the Speaker read out letters received from the Office of the President amid their protest.

Later, the Speaker asked the Home Minister to take his seat and adjourned the meeting. The next session will be convened at 11 am on Friday.

The main Opposition has been obstructing the budget session of the parliament since the session commenced on May 10.

However, the Opposition members allowed the President to table policies and programmes of the government.

Home Minister Lamichhane has been allegedly accused of fraud in a cooperative duping millions of rupees of depositors in conspiracy with others. While Lamichhane denied the allegation claiming he was unaware of the matter, evidence allegedly pointing to his involvement surfaced and an investigation was launched.

Lamichhane had earlier worked with GB Rai, one of the alleged conspirators in the fraud, before he entered politics in the last elections. However, the latter has gone underground and the police are on the lookout for him.

An investigative report by Pokhara Metropolis in connection with the alleged fraud in the cooperative was submitted before the police last week, in which hundreds of applications named Lamichhane as one of those involved in fraud.

Lamichhane has been accused of misusing his authority to transfer top-positioned police personnel investigating the case. It is also alleged that he misused his authority by coercing and forcing the Office of the Attorney General to give him a clean chit in the cooperative ‘fraud’ case.

With the Opposition up in arms and his Home Minister facing serious charges, Dahal decided to take a floor test for the fourth time as per an article in Nepal’s constitution, which mandates a sitting prime minister to prove his majority in the event of the exit of any party in the coalition.

On March 4, Dahal, in a surprising turn of events, decided to revive a coalition with the CPN-UML which caught the largest coalition partner, NC, off guard.

A new coalition including the CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist Center, Rastriya Swatantra Party, and Janata Samajwadi Party took shape. However, the following day, March 5, the Nepali Congress formally withdrew support to the Dahal government. A sitting prime minister is required to cross the threshold of 50 per cent, which comes to 138 votes, to survive a test of strength.

The Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal walked out of the government after formally splitting from the ruling coalition and is now in the Opposition.

Prachanda came to power in December 2022 when he aligned with arch-rival CPN-UML, upsetting the Nepali Congress with whom he had allied in the November 2022 election.

The vote of confidence on January 10, last year, saw Dahal receive a staggering 99 per cent vote, the highest in the history of the Nepali parliament since the establishment of democratic rule in the country.

A total of 268 parliamentarians of the 270 present in that meeting voted in favour of Dahal.

However, within three months, Dahal dumped CPN-UML and aligned with the Nepali Congress again, managing to secure a majority in the vote of confidence on March 20, last year.

In the second vote of confidence, Dahal got 172 votes of the 262 lawmakers present and voting. Only 89 votes were cast against Dahal while one member abstained.