Province 1 officially named as Koshi Province amid protest

KATHMANDU, March 1: The Province 1 Assembly has officially named the province as Koshi Province, despite protests from some political parties that were pushing for an ethnicity-based name. The decision was made through a two-thirds majority vote in the Province 1 Assembly meeting on Wednesday, with 82 votes in favor of Koshi and only four votes against it.

The provincial assembly members of the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) voted in favor of the proposal, while members of the CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) voted against it.

Although Province 1 was able to determine Biratnagar as its capital city in its first term, it failed to pick a name due to serious differences among parties over the issue. The agreement among provincial assembly members of the NC and UML made it possible to endorse the name through two-thirds majority votes in parliament on Wednesday.

Earlier, a proposal to name Province 1 as ‘Kirat-Limbuwan-Sagarmatha’ province was rejected in the provincial assembly meeting, which was proposed by Provincial Assembly member Rajendra Rai on behalf of the CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).

While five other provinces were able to pick their names, Province 1 and Province 2 were unable to name themselves for a long time due to disputes over their names. It was only on January 7, 2022, that Province 2 was able to officially name itself as Madhesh Province.

While UML has 40 members, the NC has 29 members in the 93-member Province 1 Assembly. It requires a two-thirds majority vote (i.e. 63 votes) to pick names of the province. 

Both the NC and UML were opposed to keeping the name based on ethnicity.  Although the Maoist Center was in favor of keeping the name based on ethnicity, the party eventually supported the stance of NC and the UML.
Chief Minister Hikmat Karki had taken the initiative to name the province shortly after he was elected as the executive head of Province 1. Some people had protested in Biratnagar against the proposal to name the province based on geography instead of ethnic identity. Despite the protests, the Province 1 Assembly decided to choose the name Koshi, which was supported by a majority of its members.