Karnali CM Shahi to take vote of confidence today

SURKHET, April 16: Chief minister of Karnali Province, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi is taking a vote of confidence during a meeting of the province assembly scheduled for Friday afternoon.

According to the tentative work schedule published by the Parliament Secretariat of the province assembly, CM Shahi will try to win the vote of confidence at the 40-member province assembly later today. 

The existing number of lawmakers in the assembly, however, has reduced to 39 as membership of Dharma Raj Regmi, a CPN (Maoist Center) lawmaker, was suspended after he joined the CPN-UML.With this, the chief minister is required to win at least 20 votes to win the confidence.

­­­­­Of the 39 lawmakers, CPN (UML) has 20 members and 12 represent CPN (MC). Similarly, there are six lawmakers representing Nepali Congress (NC) and one from Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).

The UML, after withdrawing its support extended to the Shahi-led government, has already expedited homework to form a new government under its leadership. At the same time, some UML lawmakers close to the faction led by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal are expected to cross the floor and cast their votes in favor of CM Shahi.

Shahi had opted to try to win a vote of confidence among two alternatives before him – either to tender resignation or to win vote of confidence-- after falling in minority as the ruling coalition partner UML withdrew its support given to his government on March 18 earlier this year.