KATHMANDU, AUGUST 21
Koshi Province Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa passed the floor test today in a dramatic way. With the successful vote of confidence in Koshi Province Assembly, the Thapa-led government will now continue its tenure.
Out of 93 members of Koshi Provincial Assembly, 77 were present in the vote of confidence test as Thapa garnered only 47 votes, including the signature of the Acting Speaker Israil Mansuri.
"I announce that the proposal of Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa for vote of confidence from the Provincial Assembly has been approved by majority," said Mansuri.
Mansuri, who presided over the meeting, also participated in the voting by assigning Geeta Timsina, MP of CPN-Maoist Centre, to preside for a while. Timsina presided over the meeting for a while after casting her vote.
MPs of opposition parties CPN-UML and RPP chanted slogans in the Province Assembly in protest against such action.
The coalition government led by Nepali Congress used the speaker of Koshi Province Assembly to bring to nought the action taken by the CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party to prevent the coalition from getting majority votes.
Israil Mansuri, who chaired the meeting in the absence of the speaker, also participated in the voting with coalition leaders. Meanwhile, experts are confused whether his vote will be constitutionally and legally recognised.
During the trust test, the power politics of Koshi Province looked hugely dramatic due to the political manoeuvres of the ruling and opposition parties.
The problem arose after Deputy Speaker Srijana Danuwar, who scheduled the Province Assembly meeting left Kathmandu for treatment today before the Province assembly meeting.
"The current circumstances were created by the CPN-UML with ill-intention," Koshi Province CM Uddhav Thapa told THT.
"We did what was possible legally. We created a safe environment for the trust vote after the Supreme Court ruling. However, CPN-UML played its political cards to negate the significance of the provincial government," he said.
In the absence of the speaker and deputy speaker, senior member should preside over the meeting, according to the law. As the senior members of UML and RPP were also on leave, the deputy speaker assigned the responsibility of chairing the meeting to Israil Mansuri of Nepali Congress.
Baburam Gautam, the former speaker of the Province Assembly, had already left the alliance to secure a majority in favour of the Congress Chief Minister.
After the speaker's resignation, Danuwar of the opposition UML was supposed to preside over the meeting and a situation was created wherein all the MPs of the ruling party would have to vote in the floor test and the majority would be in favour of Thapa.
The Supreme Court had earlier rejected the support given by the speaker for the appointment of Thapa as chief minister due to the constitutional provision that the person presiding over the meeting can participate in the voting only in decisive cases.
Contrary to the ruling coalition's expectation that 47 MPs would be able to vote for Thapa when Danuwar was presiding, it was all set so that Thapa would secure the vote of confidence. However, the deputy speaker left for Kathmandu early today. Therefore, the ruling coalition has accused the opposition party of creating a situation where they could not get vote of confidence by appointing a president from the ruling party.
"CPN-UML cunningly used this move to stop us from securing the vote of confidence. However, we conducted the process as each member has the right to cast their votes," said CM Thapa.
If the MPs of the ruling party chaired the meeting, their number would drop to 46 and the opposition estimated that the government would lose its majority.
Meanwhile, UML's Hikmat Karki has said, "We will again go to the Supreme Court claiming the move of the ruling coalition 'unconstitutional.'" CM Thapa said, "We are ready to face the opposition in the Supreme Court as they have left no other alternative for us."
He further said, "We will go to the court again regarding the matter of the constitution and the Parliament. The apex court will give the verdict now."
A version of this article appears in the print on August 22, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
