Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda’ to seek vote of confidence on Wednesday

Kathmandu, Mar 13 (PTI) Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’ will seek a vote of confidence in Parliament on Wednesday, days after the Maoist leader dumped the Nepali Congress and forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

Prachanda, a former guerilla leader belonging to 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 Nepali Congress.

According to constitutional provisions, a prime minister has to take a vote of confidence after an ally withdraws support to the ruling coalition. Prachanda is required to prove his majority after he lost the support of the previous ally, the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the HoR.

Prachanda has now forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) led by former prime minister K P Oli, who was regarded as a top critic of the Maoist leader.

The new government requires at least 138 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives to win the vote of trust. Wednesday’s vote of confidence will be the third such by Prachanda, 69, since he assumed 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 the HoR, CPN-UML, led by former premier KP Sharma Oli, has 76 seats, while the third-largest party, CPN-Maoist Centre, has 32 seats. Similarly, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, the Janata Samajwadi Party and the CPN-Unified Socialist have 20, 12 and 10 seats, respectively.

Out of a total of 78 lawmakers of the CPN-UML in the lower house, one of the members has passed away, while another is suspended.

The CPN-Maoist Centre has issued a whip to all of 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 a vote of confidence in the House in less than one-and-a-half-year.

Prachanda became the prime minister for the third term on December 25, 2022.

Last year, Prachanda faced a floor test after the Oli-led CPN-UML withdrew its support to the Prachanda-led government following a rift over backing the main opposition party’s candidate for the presidential poll.

In the 2017 election, Prachanda and Oli merged their parties and secured a comfortable majority. Oli became the prime minister, but their partnership ended halfway following differences between them.

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

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