BIRATNAGAR, Jan 20: The first meeting of the winter session of the Province 1 Assembly has been postponed until further notice on Wednesday.

The meeting was postponed until further notice after the first meeting of the seventh Winter Session today was convened barely for three minutes. 

The effect of the vertical split within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) following the move of the prime minister to dissolve the lower house of the federal parliament by the government is clearly apparent in provincial assembly as well.

The two factions within NCP have been sacking provincial lawmakers of their rival factions in an apparent bid to bolster the strength of their respective faction. Lawmakers close to the rival faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal have already filed a vote of no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Sher Dhan Rai. 

The winter session of the Provincial Assembly is scheduled to take up the issue although Chief Minister Rai has already secured support of majority lawmakers belonging to the NCP in the Provincial Assembly. 

Both the faction of NCP had earlier announced not to let the sacked lawmakers join the Provincial Assembly meeting. However, all the lawmakers including those said to have been sacked were present at Wednesday's assembly meeting.

Cadres of Puspha Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal led-faction of NCP staged protests, chanting strong slogans against Chief Minister Rai and Prime Minister K P Oli as the Provincial Assembly meeting was convened. A large number of security personnel had been deployed around the Provincial Assembly building since Wednesday morning in view of the possible untoward incident.

 
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