Kathmandu, November 9
Madhesh Province Chief Minister Krishna Prasad Yadav, who took office 11 months ago under unusual political circumstances, is now fighting to retain his position.
Unless there is a last-minute change in the political equation, Yadav is likely to be removed from office by November 15, after Chhath. The Chief Minister is constitutionally required to seek a vote of confidence within 30 days of the CPN-UML withdrawing its support on October 30. However, he appears unlikely to secure a majority in the provincial assembly.
His chances weakened further last Friday when ministers from the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) also resigned and their party withdrew its support for the government.
There had been some hope that Yadav, a Nepali Congress leader, could remain in office after Congress president Gagan Thapa met UML chair KP Sharma Oli at his residence in Gundu on November 3 and continued discussions with NCP coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal. However, despite ongoing communication between Congress leaders and the two parties, UML and the NCP have not abandoned their plan to replace the Madhesh government.
“We are moving to change the Madhesh government in line with the three-point agreement reached between UML and the CPN on cooperation in provincial governments, after the Congress leadership refused to agree,” says Niraj Acharya, head of UML’s publicity department.
On July 23, Oli and Dahal signed a written agreement to cooperate in all seven provincial governments. Under the agreement, UML and the CPN are seeking to end their power-sharing arrangements with the Congress and form new governments.
The agreement has already led to changes in the chief ministers of Bagmati, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces. In Koshi and Lumbini, where UML leads the government, the Congress has been removed from the ruling coalition. In Gandaki and Madhesh, however, the Congress has remained in government because UML and the NCP do not have a majority on their own.
“UML and the NCP did not have enough provincial assembly members to remove the Nepali Congress from the Madhesh government on their own,” says a senior UML leader. “During discussions on alternatives, we agreed to let the Nepal Samajbadi Party (JSP Nepal) lead the government.”
Bringing JSP Nepal into the plan was not straightforward. The party is part of the Progressive Front, formed on August 8 by seven Madhesh-based political parties, including the Progressive Loktantrik Party, whose patron is Janardan Sharma. The front has publicly declared that its constituent parties will not join any government until the next election.
Nevertheless, UML and NCP leaders worked through JSP Nepal’s provincial-level leaders to prepare a new government.
According to sources, an understanding had even been reached to form a new government by splitting JSP Nepal if its chair, Upendra Yadav, refused to cooperate.
“Of the party’s 25 provincial assembly members, 20 are ready to support the formation of a new government,” a source says. “Upendra Yadav, who experienced a party split under Ashok Rai just 17 months ago, was in a difficult position.”
Sources say Upendra Yadav personally visited Oli in Gundu to request that he not create further difficulties for JSP Nepal in Madhesh.
“After UML withdrew its support, Upendra Yadav went to Gundu,” says a leader. “He asked Oli not to put the party in a difficult position in Madhesh.”
However, Saroj Kumar Yadav, the JSP Nepal parliamentary party leader in Madhesh, has agreed to become chief minister. Upendra Yadav is therefore under pressure to prevent another split in his party. The push for a new government in Madhesh is thus unfolding largely as part of UML and the NCP’s effort to implement their three-point agreement, rather than reflecting the wishes of the JSP Nepal chair.
“We still have to see what the Chief Minister does. Only after that can we talk about a new government,” says JSP Nepal leader Manish Suman. “Changing governments every year is not our preference. We have no desire to do so.”
However, Suman says JSP Nepal, the largest party in the provincial assembly with 28 seats, will not give Yadav a vote of confidence. The party’s position is hardly surprising given that Yadav dismissed its ministers in April to bring UML into the government. The Janamat Party is also in the opposition.
With JSP Nepal, Janamat, UML and the NCP unlikely to support him, Yadav has little chance of securing a majority.
“We were left with no choice but to lead the government because of the actions of these three parties — the Congress, UML and the NCP,” Suman says. “We also had to take responsibility for the government to prevent the provincial assembly from being dissolved.”
Manoj Paudel, a UML leader in Madhesh, argues that the current situation arose because the Chief Minister failed to honour agreements with his party.
“The Chief Minister did not fulfil the commitments he made to us. These included reducing the number of ministries, stopping commissions and avoiding unnecessary interference in the work of ministers,” he says.
Another senior UML leader in Madhesh, however, says the reasons being cited for changing the government are merely technical.
“The problems here are being used as technical justifications. The decisions to form and dissolve governments are being made at the centre,” the leader says. “What happened in the other six provinces is now being repeated here.”
The search for a seventh chief minister
After the 2017 elections, the first Madhesh provincial government completed its full five-year term, setting a rare example in Nepal’s politics. But since the 2022 elections, changes in the federal ruling coalition have repeatedly reshaped the provincial government, bringing Madhesh into the same cycle of political instability seen elsewhere.
With just one year remaining in the provincial assembly’s term, political parties are now manoeuvring to install the province’s seventh chief minister — the sixth since the 2022 elections. Saroj Kumar Yadav of JSP Nepal is currently the most likely candidate.
Yadav had previously served as chief minister for 17 months after the 2022 elections. Elected from Bara-1 (2), he had the support of 63 provincial assembly members from UML, Janamat, the CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and two independent members, Surita Sah and Aniruddha Prasad Singh. A total of 54 votes were required to form the government.
Yadav became chief minister when Pushpa Kamal Dahal was prime minister. Like the federal government, his position was eventually lost amid shifting alliances.
During his 17-month tenure, Dahal changed his governing coalition three times. After becoming prime minister with UML’s support, he returned to an alliance with the Congress following the presidential election, only to later join hands with UML again.
The political uncertainty also affected JSP Nepal. As the parties struggled to maintain their positions in the federal government, the party, which had 12 members in the House of Representatives, split. With support from the ruling coalition, Ashok Rai broke away with seven lawmakers. The split also affected the Madhesh government.
In an effort to secure support at the federal level, the ruling coalition decided to hand over the Madhesh government to Janamat Party. Satish Singh of Janamat was elected chief minister on May 25, 2024, with the support of UML, the Maoist Centre, CPN (Unified Socialist), Nagarik Unmukti Party and Nepal Federal Socialist Party.
But the government in Kathmandu changed less than two months later. On July 29, 2024, the Congress and UML reached a seven-point agreement to form a new ruling partnership. With the two largest parties in the federal parliament joining hands, the influence of smaller parties weakened.
Janamat continued to lead the Madhesh government, but internal divisions within the party eventually put Singh’s position at risk. Amid the party’s lack of cooperation, Singh resigned on October 14, 2025. Following his resignation, political parties decided to form a government without the Congress and UML.
Jitendra Sonal of the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party was appointed chief minister on October 15, 2025, with the support of JSP Nepal, Janamat, the Maoist Centre and the CPN (Unified Socialist), among others. However, he failed to secure a vote of confidence.
Maoist Centre lawmaker Rahbar Ansari announced his decision not to support the government by smearing soot on his own face inside the provincial assembly. Unable to secure a majority within the constitutionally mandated 30-day period, Sonal resigned.
Following his resignation, UML’s Saroj Kumar Yadav was appointed chief minister on November 10, 2025. Then provincial chief Sumitra Subedi Bhandari administered his oath of office at a hotel under Article 168(3) of the Constitution, which provides for the appointment of the leader of the largest party when a government cannot be formed under the provisions for a coalition government.
The appointment was challenged in the Supreme Court. The government later dismissed Bhandari, citing conduct inconsistent with the dignity of her office.
A total of 74 provincial assembly members challenged the appointment. The Supreme Court ruled that the provincial chief had made an unconstitutional appointment despite the possibility of forming a government with the support of two or more parties. It also ordered Yadav to seek a vote of confidence within 24 hours. Unable to secure the required support, he resigned.
In effect, three chief ministers resigned within two months.
A seven-party coalition excluding UML then formed a government, and Nepali Congress leader Krishna Yadav was appointed chief minister on December 5, 2025.
Yadav had the support of JSP Nepal, Janamat, the Maoist Centre, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, the CPN (Unified Socialist) and Nagarik Unmukti Party. Although his appointment was backed by the signatures of 77 provincial assembly members, he is now facing a political crisis less than a year into his tenure.
The current crisis is not solely of Yadav’s making. He made several attempts to protect his government. After Janamat withdrew its support within six months of the government being formed, Yadav brought UML into the coalition to keep his administration in office.
When UML joined the government on May 21, JSP Nepal’s ministers were dismissed. The party subsequently withdrew its support and became the main opposition. However, UML, which had helped Yadav keep his government in power, decided to leave the coalition less than five months later.
On October 30, four UML ministers resigned and the party withdrew its support. This time, UML also paved the way for its other coalition partner, the CPN, to leave the government.
The situation in Madhesh has now reached a point where Saroj Kumar Yadav could become chief minister even against the wishes of JSP Nepal chair Upendra Yadav.
If the parties maintain their current positions, there may be no possibility of forming a government under Article 168(2) of the Constitution, which allows two or more parties to form a coalition government.
In that case, under Article 168(3), the leader of the largest party in the provincial assembly, Saroj Kumar Yadav, could be appointed chief minister.
“We are more discouraged than encouraged by the way things are being engineered,” says JSP Nepal leader Suman. “Changing governments every year goes against the spirit of the Gen Z movement and weakens federalism.”
Madhesh’s provincial assembly has 28 members from JSP Nepal, 24 from UML, 22 from the Congress, 15 from the CPN and 12 from Janamat. The Nepal Samajbadi Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party each have one member.
