Kathmandu,, May 3
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has decided to seek a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives on Monday next week, May 10.
During the cabinet meeting held on Sunday, Oli had told the ministers that he would seek the vote of confidence “so as to clear confusions” ahead of the presentation of the annual policy and programme and the budget plan of the government.
Accordingly, President Bidya Devi Bhandari has already summoned the House meeting for 1 pm on Monday.
After a Supreme Court verdict rejecting the 2018 unification between the then CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre and effectively reviving the two parties on March 7, experts and opposition parties have mounted pressure on the prime minister to prove that he commands the majority support. However, he has not been heeding it.
On the other hand, the opposition parties have failed to file a no-confidence motion against him owing to the differences of opinion in the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, whose support is a must to prove the majority for both Oli’s CPN-UML and the opposition camp of the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre.
Meanwhile, there are fears that some 30 UML lawmakers close to the party’s rival leader Madhav Kumar Nepal might cross the floor to vote against Oli to defeat him. Earlier, four leaders close to the camp had crossed the floor in Karnali to help Maoist Centre’s Mahendra Bahadur Shahi continue his reign although it had cost the lawmakers the assembly membership.
But, there are also speculations that Oli, as the parliamentary party leader, will remove the intraparty opponents from the House before the vote confirming the continuity of his government.
A section of observers also thinks that Oli will prove the lack of confidence in his government but will also bar the opposition from securing the majority, thereby taking the country towards the next round of uncertainty and ultimately early elections.
But, nothing is certain yet.
