Kathmandu, Jul 4 (PTI) Is Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda’s decision to not quit after the resignation of eight Cabinet ministers belonging to the largest party and face a vote of confidence in Parliament a strategy to block his former ally-turned-rival K P Sharma Oli from occupying the post? Nepali Congress (NC) president Sher Bahadur Deuba and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) chairman K P Sharma Oli, both former premiers, inked a power-sharing deal on Monday night to form a new NC-UML alliance government.
The CPN-UML, which is the largest party in the ruling coalition, withdrew support to the Prachanda-led government, following which eight of their Cabinet ministers resigned on Wednesday. Their resignations were accepted by the Prime Minister on Thursday.
Meanwhile, three ministers representing the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) in the Prachanda-led coalition government too are set to resign from their posts, a source close to JSP president Ashok Rai said.
The party has seven seats in the Lower House and has decided to support the NC-UML alliance.
The Nepali Congress, which is the largest party in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR), has 89 seats, while CPN-UML has 78 seats. Prachanda’s party, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC), has 32 seats.
Senior leader of CPN-Unified Socialist (CPN-US) Ghanashyam Bhushal said his party – which has 10 seats in the Lower House – will vote in favour of the Prachanda-led government when the latter seeks a vote of confidence in the House.
As of Thursday, Prime Minister Prachanda enjoys support from just 63 members of the HoR but he requires 138 votes for the government to win the vote of confidence in the House.
Prachanda has already declared not to quit the post, even when demanded by CPN-UML, despite having lost the majority in the Lower House and instead decided to face the Vote of Confidence, for which he has 30 days.
Political analysts see a tactic behind Prachanda’s move not to resign from the post but to face the House as they suggest the Prime Minister possibly wants to block Oli from becoming the Prime Minister in any way.
This can be a step to create a tussle between the Nepali Congress and UML at a time when the two large parties agreed to make Oli the Prime Minister in the first phase, they said.
“The Prime Minister can prolong his tenure by one month and seek a vote of confidence technically speaking but on moral ground, he should resign as there is clear indication that he lost majority support,” pointed out Dinesh Tripathi, a senior advocate.
The Prime Minister might want to block Oli from becoming the Prime Minister, but he will not succeed, said Tripathi.
According to Article 76 (3) of the Constitution, if the coalition government formed under Article 76 (2) fails, the largest party will get a chance to lead the government.
But at a time, when the largest party has already given consent for Oli to be the prime minister, Article 76 (3) will not be attracted for the leader of the second largest party to become the Prime Minister.
The new government should be formed under Article 76 (2), Tripathi argued.
Article 76 (2) says in cases where no party has a clear majority in the House, the President shall appoint as the prime minister “a member of the House who can command a majority with the support of two or more parties.” PTI SBP NPK AKJ NPK NPK
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