KATHMANDU, March 10: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is preparing to take the vote of confidence by March 13. PM Dahal discussed this at the CPN (Maoist Centre)’s parliamentary party meeting held on Saturday afternoon.

According to a member of parliament who attended the meeting, the party leaders discussed that the prime minister should take a vote of confidence from the Parliament by next week. Accordingly, MPs have been issued a whip not to leave the valley for a few days.

The next meeting of the Parliament has been called for March 13. However, the prime minister also briefed during the meeting that if he deems it necessary, the vote of confidence can be taken on March 10 or 11.

Lawmaker Hit Raj Pandey, who is also the chief whip of CPN (Maoist Center), said their party has issued a whip to the lawmakers concerned not to leave the capital until the prime minister takes a vote of confidence and the election of the National Assembly’s chairperson is held. "Instructions have been issued to the members of the House of Representatives to be present during the vote of confidence," said Pandey.

On March 4, PM Dahal reshuffled his cabinet after breaking his alliance with the Nepali Congress (NC). Dahal had formed an alliance with the NC after the general elections in 2022, following a rift with the CPN-UML over the presidential candidate. Backed by the NC, the government led by Dahal was formed a year ago on December 25, 2022 after agreeing to make Ram Chandra Paudel the president.

However, a rift with the NC over the Bill on Transitional Justice led to an abrupt end to the partnership. According to the sources, Prime Minister Dahal wanted to bring new faces in his cabinet amid concerns of under performance by some ministers representing the NC and other coalition partners. Prime Minister Dahal took the initiative after the NC President did not cooperate with his request.

With this, a new cabinet was formed on March 6, 2024, which has 20 ministers including three deputy prime ministers, one each from the Maoist Center, CPN-UML and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).  The ministers, who assumed their respective offices on Wednesday itself, include five from Maoist Center, eight from UML, four from RSP and two from CPN (Unified Socialist).

Similarly, as per the constitutional provision, prime ministers have to take a vote of confidence after any ally withdraws support.

In the parliamentary party meeting held on Saturday, Prime Minister Dahal briefed that he took the step to form a new ministerial team after the previous alliance became uncomfortable to work with. “Working together with Nepali Congress turned out to be incompatible, while the government aspired to lead development amid ongoing centralization, political polarity and defending national sovereignty,” Dahal said.

Dahal however defended that he stepped up for a fresh coalition not just to protect his seat of prime minister. “The position was supposed to remain intact for at least the next one year. However, it became tougher to give result-oriented outcomes, while the national interest and national economy appeared weak, due to the non-cooperation from the Nepali Congress.”

Likewise, Chairman of the ruling CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli has said that the current UML-CPN (Maoist Center) alliance will continue for the next four years even as power centers are active to break it. He mentioned that it was not possible to consult the party before forging political alliance with the Maoist Center due to the complicated situation. “But the success we achieved is great,” a party official quoted Oli as saying in the briefing.

Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to nominate a candidate for the post of the chairman of the National Assembly.

Leader Arjun Narsingh KC said that a meeting of office bearers held on Saturday at the residence of party President Sher Bahadur Deuba at Budhanilkantha decided to nominate a candidate for the post of chairman.

NC has also decided to discuss with other opposition parties to seek support for the chairman of the National Assembly.

The party has said that the selection of candidates will be done after the meeting of the members of the National Assembly.

This decision comes in the wake of the vacancy left by Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, who recently concluded his six-year tenure as the Speaker of the National Assembly.

Previously, the NC had been firm to elect the senior leader of the party Krishna Prasad Sitaula. However, it will be an uphill battle for the political party with the largest number of lawmakers to elect its nominated candidate after the downfall of its alliance with the government.    

 
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