SURKHET, April 16: Chief minister of Karnali Province, Mahendra Bahadur Shai won a vote of confidence in the provincial assembly on Friday.
As four lawmakers of the CPN-UML - Ammar Bahadur Thapa, Prakash Jwala, Kurmaraj Shahi and Nanda Singh Budha - crossed the floor during the voting held on Friday, Shahi garnered a total of 22 votes - enough to win the confidence of the provincial assembly.
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The provincial assembly members who crossed the floor in today’s voting belong to the UML faction led by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal. Of them, Jwala was the Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning, and Budha was the Minister for Industry, Forest and Environment in the Shahi-led Cabinet before they tendered their resignations on April 6.
In the voting, 15 of the 37 members present in the 39-member provincial assembly voted against him.
The lawmakers representing the Nepali Congress also extended their support to CM Shahi.
Of the total 40 members of the provincial assembly, the Congress party has a total of six lawmakers and the ruling CPN (Maoist Center) has 12 seats after one of its lawmakers joined the CPN-UML. Similarly, there are a total of 20 lawmakers representing the UML including the assembly speaker.
CM Shahi, on April 12, had registered a letter at the provincial assembly’s secretariat that he would take a vote of confidence as the ruling partner CPN-UML withdrew its support in March this year.
