Kathmandu, October 12
The ruling Nepal Communist Party’s chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has asked another chairman of the party, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, to convince the party’s lawmakers in Karnali Provincial Assembly to withdraw a no-confidence motion that they registered against Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi.
A day after 18 of the party’s lawmakers urged the parliamentary party to remove Shahi from the parliamentary party leader’s position, Dahal met Oli and Nepal in Kathmandu separately.
The NCP has 33 members in the Karnali Assembly, and if the majority of them decide to remove Shahi from the parliamentary party leader, he would also lose the chief minister’s position. The constitution has it that the parliamentary party leader of the party commanding majority votes in the assembly is appointed the chief minister.
“But, registering the no-confidence motion and removing the chief minister do not give a good message,” a source privy to the meetings quote Dahal.
Meanwhile, Nepal told Dahal that he already directed seven lawmakers close to him not to support the motion.
