Lumbini Province CM may not have to face motion of no confidence

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Kathmandu, 30 December (2020) - At a time when Dahal-Nepal faction in ruling Nepal Communist Party has been filing no confidence motion against chief ministers in two provinces, Lumbini Province CM Shankar Pokharel seems to have been spared.

CM Pokharel is considered close to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Dahal-Nepal faction could not even reach the quorum of one third members of provincial assembly (22) to file the motion.

MPAs close to leader Madhav Kumar Nepal have dramatically changed loyalty to join Oli faction.

They did not even dare to collect signatures for the motion. Provincial assembly has 87 members and 44 votes are essential to reach majority.

Dahal-Nepal group could not even muster 22 MPAs to file no confidence motion, an MPA told Lokantar.

Even if MPAs of former Maoist bloc are unified, CM Shankar Pokharel has become successful in bringing MPAs belonging to Madhav Nepal faction to his camp.

Madhav Nepal group has not been able to make even a group of three MPAs.

But former Maoist leader IP Kharel denies the failure in reaching the quorum of one third MPAs.

"KP Oli committed an unforgivable sin but we leftists have been trying to build an alliance in the province. The suggestions about not reaching the quorum are wrong. We'll file a motion of no confidence if the provincial government starts showing autocratic behavior. No one needs to get excited," Kharel told Lokantar.

NCP has 61, Nepali Congress has 19, Janata Samajwadi Party has six and Rastriya Jana Morcha has one MPA in the provincial assembly.

Former CPN-UML group has 41 MPAs and former CPN-Maoist bloc has 20 members.

Dahal-Nepal faction needs the support of 44 MPAs to topple Shankar Pokharel government.

CM Pokharel enjoys support of 40 MPAs and needs just four more MPAs to keep his government intact.

The government is trying to extend the cabinet to accommodate supporting MPAs.

A source claims that the CM is trying to add more ministers by splitting the ministry or removing some incumbent ministers in order to secure majority support in the assembly.