Key Takeaways:

• Confidence vote set for Aug 17 at 1pm in Bagmati Provincial Assembly
• Baniya's alliance: 36 Congress + 2 Hamro Nepali Party = 38 votes
• Needs 15 more votes to reach the 53 required for majority in 104-member assembly
• RPP (12 seats) and NWPP (3 seats) hold decisive role; UML-CPN alliance also preparing claim

HETAUDA, AUGUST 14 Bagmati Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniya will seek a vote of confidence on August 17, but he currently appears 15 votes short of the 53 needed to retain his government. Baniya has asked the Provincial Assembly Secretariat to arrange a meeting for 1:00pm on August 17 for the purpose of taking the confidence vote. The chief minister was pushed into a minority position after the CPN-UML withdrew its support for his government on August 6. Under the constitutional provision, Baniya must secure a vote of confidence by August 20. The Nepali Congress parliamentary party had earlier decided to seek the confidence vote before August 19. Baniya subsequently wrote to the Provincial Assembly Secretariat to make the necessary arrangements for the August 17 vote. Baniya currently has the support of 36 Nepali Congress lawmakers and two from the Hamro Nepali Party, which has joined his government with one minister. Together, they account for 38 votes. He therefore needs the support of at least 15 additional lawmakers to reach the 53-vote threshold. The CPN, with 26 members, and UML, with 25, have formed a new political alliance and are preparing to stake a claim to form the provincial government. However, the two parties have yet to secure the support required to form a new government. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party has 12 lawmakers and the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party three, making their combined 15 seats potentially decisive in the confidence vote. The 104-member Bagmati Provincial Assembly requires 53 votes for a majority.