By Our Reporter
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli secured the support of a two-thirds majority in the floor test on Sunday.
After winning the vote of confidence, Oli emerged as a powerful Prime Minister again.
Out of a total of 263 votes cast, Prime Minister Oli garnered 188 votes, which is more than a two-thirds majority in the 275-member House.
Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, Oli’s UML, Janata Samajwadi Party of Ashok Rai, Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal of Upendra Yadav, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party of Mahantha Thakur, Janamat Party of CK Raut and Nakarik Unmukti Party and independent lawmakers voted in favour of Oli. Surprisingly, together with the two big parties, all Madhes-based parties voted in favour of Oli.
The Rastriya Prajatantra Party which had earlier welcomed the July 1 agreement of the NC and UML, however, voted against Oli. A total of 74 lawmakers including the Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Unified Socialist voted against the motion.
The overwhelming support of the lawmakers has shown that the present government could amend the constitution, which is the main agenda of the NC-UML agreement. They have argued that a constitution amendment is necessary to ensure political stability in the country. However, the CPN (Maoist Centre) has rejected the constitutional amendment plan.
Now that PM Oli –led government enjoys a comfortable majority of two-thirds lawmakers required to amend the constitution, people have to wait a few months to know whether the two parties have genuinely raised the issue or it was just a pretext to oust the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government from power. Again, PM Oli and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, while addressing the House on Sunday, said that they would proceed to amend the constitution in the consensus of all political parties.
During his address while tabling the trust motion, PM Oli also made public the seven-point agreement inked by the NC and UML on July 1, which was kept secret for weeks.
The two big parties have argued that they allied to maintain political stability in the country. But considering the nature of Nepali politicians, people do not believe their words. According to the agreement, Oli will lead the government for two years, and Deuba will lead the election government thereafter. But many political pundits have suspected whether Oli will handover power to Deuba in two years because they have not forgotten the enmity between Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal when they were in a single party—Nepal Communist Party– four years ago and the tussle between them in power-sharing ultimately culminated not only in the division of the CPN but also fall of the Oli-led government. But if they manage to go together by making amendments to the constitution as they have promised, and if they contest the 2027 general election without forging an electoral alliance, they could contribute somewhat to political stability. Otherwise, there will be no meaning in their alliance.
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