By Our Reporter
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda secured a vote of confidence for the second time in the House of Representatives on Monday
Earlier, he had secured the vote of confidence on January 9.
The Prime Minister was compelled to seek a vote of confidence in a gap of 70 days after he ended the previous coalition with the CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajantra Party and other parties on December 25 last year.
He had become the Prime Minister after the November 20 election with the strong backing of the CPN-UML although his party CPN (Maoist Centre) had contested the election by forging an alliance with the Nepali Congress. When NC denied him making the PM, he ended the pre-election alliance and forged a new one and became the Prime Minister.
On January 9, he had secured 268 votes in the floor test and only two votes had gone against him but on Monday he garnered only 172 votes and 89 went against him.
Basically, Dahal ended the coalition with the UML over the election of the President, because Dahal wanted to elect the new President from the NC after the latter gave him a vote of confidence in the first-floor test. But KP Sharma Oli of the CPN-UML outright rejected his proposal to give the top post to the NC. Earlier on December 25, Dahal had agreed to give the top post to the UML.
Ultimately, he ended the coalition by deciding to back Ram Chandra Paudel in the presidential election.
However, PM Dahal, following the Indina instruction, Dahal decided to break the alliance with UML.
Surprisingly, Oli did not address Monday’s meeting and vice chair Bishnu Paudel spoke on behalf of the UML, asking the PM when the latter would take the next vote of confidence.
PM Prachanda responded to Paudel stating that that would depend on the coalition parties. However, Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NC and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the CPN (Unified Socialist) said the coalition would last for five years.
It is rumoured that the UML will offer the post of PM to Deuba in a few months, and Deuba may agree to become the PM as he is too greedy for power.
On Monday, Nepali Congress, CPN Maoist Centre, Janata Samajwadi Party, CPN-Unified Socialist, Janamat Party, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and independent MPs like Prabhu Shah and Amaresh Kumar Singh gave the vote of confidence to the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives. And the CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party voted against the Prime Minister during the floor test. Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party MP Prem Suwal did not vote.
Now after garnering the vote of confidence, the PM has a big challenge to expand the Cabinet by picking ministers from at least seven parties including the Rastriya Swatantra Party.
The parties have already started bargaining for more powerful ministries. As the NC is the largest party with nearly three times more lawmakers than the Maoist Centre, it will naturally seek more ministries, at least eight while the CPN (Unified Socialist) with 10 seats in the House is demanding three ministers. As such, power-sharing will be the biggest challenge before the PM as well as Deuba, because as the big parties in the 10-party coalition, they have to settle the dispute to give continuity to the coalition. Otherwise, Oli can cash in on their dispute and can break the alliance at any time.
There left 16 ministries but 28 MPs are in the race to become the PM.
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