NCP issues whip to its provincial lawmakers to vote for Lumbini as Province 5’s name and Dang as capital

BUTWAL, Oct 5:The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has issued a whip to its lawmakers in Province 5 Assembly to vote in favor of the proposed province name and capital.

NCP whip Bhumishwar Dhakal said that NCP Parliamentary Party Leader and Province 5 Chief Minister (CM) Shankar Pokhrel, during a meeting of the NCP Parliamentary Party, directed the lawmakers representing the ruling side to cast their votes in favor of the recently tabled proposal.

An all-party meeting was also held earlier on Monday morning to forge consensus among the parties. The meeting, however, ended inconclusively.

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Provincial Minister for Law and Internal Affairs, Kul Prasad KC, on Friday last week tabled the proposal that picked Lumbini as the name of the province and the Deukhuri area in Dang as its capital.

Endorsing the proposal requires a two-thirds majority in the provincial assembly. Of the 87 MPs in Province 5 Assembly, 61 including CM Shankar Pokhrel  represent the NCP while 19 lawmakers belong to the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) and five are from Janata Samajwadi Party. Rastriya Janamorcha and Rastriya Janta Party have a member each in the provincial parliament.

Meanwhile, the youth and student wings of the main opposition Nepali Congress have taken to the streets against the government’s proposal. The protests and demonstrations which erupted in Butwal soon after the decision of the government of Province 5 to make Deukhuri of Dang the capital city of the province have continued on Monday as well.

The protests in Butwal have intensified since early Monday morning.