Kathmandu, April 15
The Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre have forged an alliance to topple the CPN-UML government in Gandaki, moving a no-trust motion against the Prithvi Subba Gurung-led government.
Twenty-eight lawmakers -- 15 from the NC, 11 from the CPN-MC, and two from the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal -- today registered a no-trust motion against the Gurung-led government and sought a special session of the Provincial Assembly to consider the no-trust motion, as the PA was prorogued last night.
As per the constitutional provision, the movers of the no-trust motion have named NC's Krishna Chandra Nepali Pokharel to replace Gurung as Gandaki chief minister.
In the 60-member PA, UML has 27 members and has the support of one independent member – Dipak Manange.
To defeat the no-trust motion, Gurung will need the support of another party.
JSP-N leader Laxman Lal Karna, who is also a member of the House of Representatives, said the issue of whether the party should support the no-trust motion against the Gurung-led government had not been discussed yet.
Gandaki government Spokesperson Ram Sharan Basnet said the PA was prorogued because the government needed time to prepare the new fiscal budget and to monitor and implement development projects.
Basnet said movers of the no-trust motion only had 28 signatures which meant that they did not have enough numbers to topple the government.
However, the Rastriya Janamorcha, which has three lawmakers in Gandaki and one in Lumbini, has decided to withdraw support to the UML governments in the two provinces, Rastriya Janamorcha leader Chitra Bahadur KC told THT.
"Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli betrayed the people who gave the UML and the CPN-MC coalition a huge majority," he added.
The NC and the CPN-MC are also planning to move a no-trust motion against the Lumibini government led by CPN-UML's Shankar Pokharel. Both Gurung and Pokharel are close to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. There are 87 lawmakers in Lumbini province.
Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader in Lumibini, Birendra Kumar Kanaudiya, said the NC and the CPN-MC would register a no-trust motion against the Shankar Pokharel-led government in three-four days, as "some lawmakers are out of the capital". He added that they would propose a CPN-MC lawmaker as the next chief minister. In the 87-member Lumbini PA, the NC has 19 lawmakers.
The CPN-MC has 14 lawmakers, as two of its lawmakers have defected to the UML. The JSP-N has five lawmakers and the Rastriya Janamorcha has one.
CPN-MC Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said his party had reached an understanding with the NC about forming a coalition government under NC leadership in Gandaki. He said his party would seek NC's support to form a coalition government in Lumbini province.
