BIRATNAGAR, August 21: Chief Minister of Koshi Province, Uddhav Thapa, received the vote of confidence from the Provincial Assembly on Monday.
Altogether 47 votes were cast in favor of the motion. The vote of confidence for the post of the chief minister requires the support of at least 47 members of the 93-member provincial assembly.
About 29 members of the provincial assembly from Nepali Congress, 13 from CPN (Maoist Center), four from CPN (Unified Socialist) and one from Janata Samajwadi (JSP) voted in favor of CM Thapa. Acting chair of the Provincial Assembly Israil Mansuri also voted in favor of Thapa. Mansuri was assigned to head the Provincial Assembly after Deputy Speaker of the PA Srijana Danuwar informed that she would not be able to chair the assembly meeting due to health issues.
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Likewise, 30 votes were cast against the motion. The Provincial Assembly members of the CPN-UML voted against the motion.
Monday’s meeting was attended by 77 members of Koshi Provincial Assembly. Provincial Assembly members from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) did not attend the meeting. The RPP has six members in the Provincial Assembly.
Meanwhile, CPN-UML's Taradevi Dhakal, Khadga Bahadur Basnet, Gyanendra Subedi, Rohit Bahadur Karki, and Ram Prasad Mahato, along with Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP)'s Gopal Bahadur Bishwakarma, had requested the Province Assembly Secretariat for leave and were not present at the meeting on Monday.
Thapa was appointed as the chief minister of Koshi Province on August 1 with the support of two or more parties in accordance with Article 168(2) of the Constitution. There is a constitutional provision that the chief minister must take the vote of confidence from the Provincial Assembly within 30 days of appointment.
UML Provincial Assembly members protested against the voting conducted by Acting Speaker Mansuri. They raised slogans and obstructed the Provincial Assembly meeting. Mansuri announced that the Thapa managed to get the vote of confidence amidst obstruction of the Provincial Assembly.
