NEW DELHI: Nepal's Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal also referred to as Prachanda, has been ousted after losing trust vote.
He received 63 votes in favour of his trust motion and 194 voted against him. This was the fourth vote of confidence he sought since he came to power a year and a half ago.
On July 2nd, Prachanda declared that he would call for another vote of trust. This happened following a midnight power-sharing deal that was struck between two former Prime Ministers Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) chairman and former PM KP Sharma Oli.
Oli’s government had ended its support to 69-year-old Prachanda four months after extending it. However, Prachanda is refusing to step down and will seek a vote of confidence.
78-year-old Deuba and 72-year-old Oli agreed to share the PM position on a rotation basis for the remaining term of the Parliament.
Nepali Congress with 89 seats is the largest party in the 275-member House of Representatives while CPN-UML has 78 seats, while Prachandas party has 32 seats. Deuba and Oli’s parties combine to get 167 seats which is more than the majority seats that are needed to form the government.
Political instability in Nepal can be gauged from the fact that they have had 13 governments in the past 16 years.
Since Prachanda has already been PM for one and half years – Oli and Deuba want to equally be in that position on a rotation basis for the remaining term.
Trouble began to brew between the coalition partners after Prachanda opened files of corruption cases involving political leaders.
Meanwhile, as per the midnight agreement struck on July 2nd, the CPN-UML had decided to lead provincial governments in Koshi, Lumbini and Karnali provinces while the Nepali Congress will lead the provincial governments of Bagmati, Gandaki and Sudurpaschim provinces.