BIRATNAGAR, March 11: The shift in the power alliance at the central government has affected the provincial governments. While some provinces are facing challenges as the government finds itself in the minority, the Koshi Province government maintains confidence that changes in the central coalition won’t affect its standing.
The Koshi Province was formed as per Article 168 (5) of the constitution, which is considered as the article of last resort. Article 168 (5) stipulates that the government will be formed under the leadership of the member of provincial assembly who has the majority in the provincial assembly.
There is a constitutional provision that the government formed in this way must obtain a vote of confidence from the Provincial Assembly and in the event that it fails to obtain a vote of confidence, the Provincial Assembly must be dissolved and elections must be held within six months.
Chief Minister Kedar Karki argues that the Koshi Province government is formed under the last resort of the constitution and it does not belong to any particular party. He said, “In Koshi Province, there is no party but a government led by provincial assembly members who have a majority in the parliament according to the last option of the constitution, so the government does not change if the coalition changes.”
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Karki says there is no situation for the provincial government to collapse just because the parties desire it. He argued that since the government formed under the leadership of the provincial assembly members has already taken the vote of confidence, they cannot even bring a motion of no confidence for two years.
Karki made it clear that he will proceed according to the constitution. Sources said that if the government is in a minority, Chief Minister Karki will take a vote of confidence again and if he fails to get a vote of confidence, he will recommend the dissolution of the provincial assembly to the province chief according to Article 168 (7) of the Constitution.
Article 168 (7) of the Constitution states that "If the chief minister appointed in accordance with Clause (5) fails to receive a vote of confidence or if the chief minister cannot be appointed, the province chief shall, on the recommendation of the chief minister, dissolve the provincial assembly and set a date for the election of another provincial assembly within six months."
The main opposition CPN-UML has been claiming that a new government can be formed. Rewati Raman Bhandari, Chief Whip of UML Koshi Province Assembly, insists that a new government can be formed in Koshi Province based on the interpretation of the Supreme Court rather than the provisions of the Constitution.
Bhandari claimed that a new government can be formed in Koshi Province according to Article 168 of the Constitution, as the Supreme Court has explained that the provincial assembly cannot be dissolved as long as there is an option to form a government.
“As the current government was formed under the leadership of members of the provincial assembly who had a majority. Likewise, a new government can also be formed under the leadership of another member of the provincial assembly who will achieve majority,”he said.
The UML, which has been claiming that there is still an option to form a new government, has not withdrawn its support to the government even though it left the government three months ago.
It is said that UML couldn’t withdraw the vote of confidence due to the absence of a constitutional provision allowing for the withdrawal of confidence votes given to the government formed under Article 168 (5).
Bhandari, the chief whip of UML, said that with the shift in the power dynamics at the center, the Koshi government remains in the minority and should seek the vote of confidence.
The CPN (Maoist Center) has made it clear that it will not immediately withdraw its support to the Koshi Province government and will not leave the government either. Indra Bahadur Angno, the leader of the parliamentary party of the CPN (Maoist Center), said, “We will not take any steps to push the province towards confusion and instability.”
He said that because the government is in accordance with Article 168 (5) of the Constitution, it has not been decided what to do next. But he said that it cannot be said that the current government has no alternative. “The court has explained that the support given to a person can be withdrawn by the person,” he said, adding this government can collapse and another government can be formed easily on this basis.
