By Our Reporter
The Koshi Province staged yet another dirty game on Monday. Unlike in the previous foul play, both the ruling and opposition parties revealed their true nature this time.
When the Deputy Speaker flew to Kathmandu after calling the meeting and scheduling the voting for confidence while other senior members designated to chair the meeting in the absence of the Speaker of the opposition parties took leave apparently to fail the vote of confidence motion. When no one from the opposition was to preside over the Assembly meeting, NC’s Israil Monsuri not only chaired the meeting but also participated in the voting process. As a result, Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa, could receive a vote of confidence from the Provincial Assembly on Monday.
Altogether 47 votes were cast in favour of the motion. The vote of confidence for the post of chief minister requires the support of at least 47 members of the 93-member provincial assembly.
Twenty-nine members of the provincial assembly from the Nepali Congress, 13 from CPN (Maoist Center), four from CPN (Unified Socialist) and one from Janata Samajwadi (JSP) voted in favour of CM Thapa. Acting chair of the Provincial Assembly Israil Mansuri also voted in favour of Thapa. Mansuri was assigned to head the Provincial Assembly after Deputy Speaker of the PA Srijana Danuwar left for Kathmandu citing health issues.
Likewise, 30 votes were cast against the motion. The Provincial Assembly members of the CPN-UML voted against the motion.
Provincial Assembly members from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) did not attend the meeting. The RPP has six members in the Provincial Assembly.
CPN-UML’s Taradevi Dhakal, Khadga Bahadur Basnet, Gyanendra Subedi, Rohit Bahadur Karki, and Ram Prasad Mahato, along with Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP)’s Gopal Bahadur Bishwakarma, had requested the Province Assembly Secretariat for leave and were not present at the meeting on Monday.
Thapa was appointed as the Chief Minister of Koshi Province on August 1 with the support of two or more parties in accordance with Article 168(2) of the Constitution. There is a constitutional provision that the chief minister must take a vote of confidence from the Provincial Assembly within 30 days of appointment.
UML Provincial Assembly members protested against the voting conducted by Acting Speaker Mansuri. They raised slogans and obstructed the Provincial Assembly meeting. Mansuri announced that the Thapa managed to get the vote of confidence amidst obstruction of the Provincial Assembly.
Earlier, Thapa’s appointment was dismissed by the Supreme Court for receiving support from the Speaker. And this time too, the acting Speaker voted in his favour, resulting in the controversy.
Even NC’s senior leader Shekhar Koirala termed the incident unconstitutional.
What was staged in Koshi was the mockery of the constitutional parliamentary practice. While the Deputy Speaker did not fulfil her responsibilities, and the UML and RPP made their members designated to chair the meeting in the absence of the Speaker taking strategic leaves, Mansuri voted despite chairing the meeting. His act was illegal according to the earlier order of the Supreme Court.
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