KATHMANDU, MAY 12
CPN-UML lawmaker Bhim Bahadur Rawal, who belongs to the Madhav Kumar Nepal-Jhalanath Khanal faction of the party, has urged lawmakers close to Nepal and Khanal to resign en masse to facilitate the formation of a new government.
Rawal today wrote on his Twitter that to topple the KP Sharma Oli-led government, they needed to resign from the Parliament.
"Extraordinary problems require extraordinary remedies.
PM Oli should be toppled in order to prevent him from taking additional steps against national interests and party statute and to prevent him from engaging in undemocratic activities. For that we should resign as members of Parliament. This is appropriate in terms of political morality and legal principles," Rawal tweeted.
If 28 UML lawmakers of the Nepal-Khanal faction who had abstained from the voting process when Oli sought vote of confidence on Monday resign en masse, it will make it easier for the Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre to form a new government even if Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal lawmakers close to Mahantha Thakur and Rajendra Mahato don't support them.
If the 28 UML lawmakers quit en masse, the strength of the 271-member House of Representatives will be reduced to 243.
In that case, NC, which has 69 lawmakers in the HoR, and CPN- MC, which has 49 lawmakers, will need the support of only 12 JSP-N lawmakers to form the government. JSP-N has 32 lawmakers in the HoR. Fifteen of them, who are close to Upendra Yadav and Baburam Bhattarai, had voted against the vote of confidence motion on Monday.
Fifteen belonging to Thakur-Mahato faction had stayed neutral .
Meanwhile, Bhattarai wrote on Twitter today that in order to resolve the political crisis, all parties needed to form a new national coalition government as per Article 76 (2) of the constitution and hold elections in one year.
Bhattarai said such a government should not be led by a former prime minister or the current prime minister. Bhattarai said such a government should be run on the basis of a common minimum programme, should resolve the COVID crisis, and ensure economic relief packages, constitution amendment, and truth and reconciliation.
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has given parties until 9:00pm tomorrow to stake claim for the formation of a new coalition government under Article 76 (2) of the constitution.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 13, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
