KATHMANDU, MARCH 18
The ten-party ruling alliance meeting held at Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's residence in Baluwatar, has agreed to give vote of confidence to the prime minister on Monday.
PM Dahal's daughter Ganga Dahal, who serves in his private secretariat, wrote in her Facebook post that all the partners of the 10-party alliance decided to present themselves unitedly tomorrow when the government brings the Truth and Reconciliation Bill, and on Monday, when the PM seeks the vote of confidence.
Vice-president of Nepali Congress Purna Bahadur Khadka said alliance partners would hold their parliamentary party meeting tomorrow to decide about giving vote of confidence to the PM.
The PM needs to seek vote of confidence as two of the parties that were in the seven-party alliance - Rastriya Prajatantra Party and CPN-UML - withdrew support to the government after PM Dahal broke the alliance with them to form a new 10-party alliance, including the Nepali Congress and CPN (Unified Socialist).
Earlier, Prime Minister Dahal had told the alliance partners that he would go for floor test on March 20.
The partners of the 10-party alliance are CPN-Maoist Centre, Nepali Congress, CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, Janamat Party, Rastriya Jan Morcha, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party-Nepal, Nepal Samajwadi Party and Aam Janata Party.
PM Dahal broke away from the seven-party alliance as the CPN-UML did not support PM Dahal's proposal to back Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel for the post of president.
LSP-N leader Sarvendra Nath Shukla said that the PM sought the alliance partners' support for the two bills, including the TRC bill and Constitution Council Act (Amendment) Bill tomorrow and on the vote of confidence that he would seek on Monday. The PM sought alliance partners' support telling them that the current ruling alliance would remain intact for the next five years.
Shukla said he told the PM to introduce citizenship bill, federal civil service bill and the bill to amend the penal code allowing the government to withdraw cases against 'political prisoners' from any level of the judiciary.
The PM plans to expand his Cabinet only after seeking vote of confidence. The PM, who is holding more than a dozen Cabinet portfolios, will not expand the Cabinet before seeking vote of confidence, apparently to avoid a situation where competing interests of alliance partners could make some partners unhappy about the allocation of portfolios.
Often, alliance partners compete for more, and plum portfolios, which puts the PM in difficult situation.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
