On Tuesday, the recently-appointed Nepalese PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” emerged victorious in a vote of confidence, with coalition parties and the opposition uniting in support for his leadership.
In the House of Representatives, 268 out of 270 present in the session voted in Prachanda’s support, providing him well above the required 138 votes. Meanwhile, two others voted against his leadership. Four lawmakers were absent from the ballot.
While urging all political parties to support him, Prachanda called for a national consensus on the issues of nationality, national security, and foreign relations. On a similar note, the ruling coalition released a Common Minimum Programme on Monday vowing to take “back the territories of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani, and Lipulek that are currently occupied by India.”
OPPOSITION PARTIES SUPPORT PRACHANDA
Nepal PM Prachanda wins vote of confidence in Parliament pic.twitter.com/49hye7fjuX
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) January 10, 2023
Apart from the seven political parties that are a part of Prachanda’s coalition, the Nepali Congress, the largest party with 89 seats, also supported him. The party’s work execution committee said on Tuesday that it would support Dahal’s leadership to “safeguard the constitution” amid threats of dissolution of the house.
Other smaller parties, including the CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Nagarik Unmukti Party, voted in Prachanda’s favour as well. However, all three political parties have reiterated that they will remain in the opposition.
However, the Nepali Congress’ support for Prachanda’s leadership indicated that there would be no real opposition in the Parliament. This has raised a technical question about whether a political party that has supported the PM in the vote of confidence could be a part of the opposition in the Parliament. In Tuesday’s vote, only two political parties – the Rastriya Janamorcha and the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party – having one seat each, rejected the confidence vote.
NEPAL 2022 ELECTIONS
Prachanda took over as PM for the third time on 26 December after a last-minute decision to abandon his pre-poll alliance with the Nepali Congress. Instead, he chose to form a coalition with Opposition leader and former PM KP Sharma Oli.
Consequently, the coalition formed the government with 169 seats, of which 78 were from Oli’s CPN-UML and 32 from Prachanda’s Maoist Centre.