Butwal, August 5
Lumbini Governor Amik Sherchan has summoned a special session of the Provincial Assembly for August 11 to discuss a no-confidence motion filed against Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel.
Earlier, opposition parties in the assembly had requested Sherchan to summon the assembly as soon as possible.
Issuing a notice on Thursday, the Provincial Assembly Secretariat informed the meeting has been called by the governor.
The Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal and Rastriya Janamorcha, in the application submitted on Monday, had claimed Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel already lost majority support in the assembly. They have also submitted the signatures of 41 lawmakers of the 80-member assembly, stating they can garner the majority support to form the new government.
Earlier on May 2, Pokhrel was reappointed as the chief minister, hours after he resigned from the position, as he had claimed his party, CPN-UML, had the support of 41 lawmakers in the province. However, two lawmakers had resigned from the positions expressing dissatisfaction with Pokhrel whereas one defected to the CPN-Maoist Centre.
It means Pokhrel has the support of only 38 lawmakers currently.
Consequently, the opposition parties had filed a no-confidence motion against him on May 9, but the then governor Dharma Nath Yadav, who was close to the UML, had rejected the call, arguing the motion cannot be filed in the first two years of the appointment.
Apparently, to pave the way for the opposition parties to topple the government, the federal government consisting of the NC, Maoist Centre and Janata Samajbadi Party had removed Yadav from the position to be replaced with Sherchan, a former Maoist leader.
