Nepal: UML issues whip to its lawmakers to vote against Prachanda

By Binod Prasad Adhikari
Kathmandu [Nepal], July 10 : The CPN- UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) has issued a whip to its lawmakers to vote against Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka 'Prachanda' ahead of Friday's vote of confidence.
UML Chief Whip Mahesh Bartaula on Wednesday issued the whip to the UML MP's to vote against the Prime Minister's proposal to be presented on July 12.
PM Dahal is seeking a vote of confidence following the UML's withdrawal of support from his government and their new alliance with the main opposition, the Nepali Congress.
This coalition significantly diminishes PM Dahal's chances of securing the vote. According to the agreement between UML and Nepali Congress, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli is set to be the next Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal now is leading a minority government after his major ally CPN-UML formally walked out of the government on July 3, 2024. Past midnight of July 2, the UML had forged an alliance with the Nepali Congress changing the political course of the Himalayan Nation.
All the eight ministers from the UML had tendered their resignation to the Prime Minister after the change in the political course of the Himalayan Nation.
In the 275-member house, the Nepali Congress has the highest 88 seats, CPN-UML has 79 seats while the RSP has 20 seats and the Maoist Center led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal has 32 seats.
Taking advantage of the hung parliament, Dahal has been switching sides in course of months garnering support from either the Nepali Congress or CPN-UML. With the latest round of political change, the Maoist Center will be sitting in opposition for the first time within a decade.
With the formal withdrawal of CPN-UML from the government, Dahal was mandated to take a vote of confidence within 30 days as per the provision stated in Clause 76 of the Constitution of Nepal.
In less than 20 months in power, PM Dahal already has faced 4 votes of confidence. In the first round of vote of confidence after the commencement of General elections in November 2022, Dahal had secured a whopping over 99 per cent of votes. At that time Dahal set a record by garnering 268 votes out of the 270 existing lawmakers present in the meeting that day.
Back then Dahal was able to get the whopping majority only because the Nepali Congress whom Dahal December 2022, 2022 had bigoted to become the next Prime Minister stood on his side.
Within 3 months, Dahal dumped CPN-UML to walk out of government again aligning with Nepali Congress and managed to secure a majority in the vote of confidence on March 20 last year. In the second round of vote of confidence, Dahal got 172 votes out of 262 lawmakers present at the time of voting. Only 89 votes came in against Dahal while one member abstained from voting.
On March 13 this year Dahal took his third vote of confidence where he had received a total of 157 votes in favor. On May 20, Dahal took the vote of confidence amid the obstruction by opposition where he got 157 votes which was denounced by the opposition political parties.
The vote of confidence was conducted amidst vocal dissent from key opposition parties, such as the Nepali Congress, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, and Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal.
The constitution has mandated a Prime Minister to cross the mark of 138 votes to redeem posts and control the government. Dahal was appointed as the Prime Minister by then President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on December 25, 2022, after he showed the support of 169 lawmakers.
As per the constitutional provision, a prime minister appointed under Article 76(2) needs to secure a vote of confidence from the parliament within 30 days of the appointment.