Gandaki CM Pandey gets confidence vote

Gandaki province Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey has secured the vote of confidence.

He received 31 votes in his favour and 28 votes were cast against him. 

Pandey secured 27 votes of province assembly members from Congress and 2 from RPP. He also got the vote of independent MP Rajeev Gurung alias Deepak Manange and Nepal Samajwadi Party MP Phanindra Devkota. Devkota had contested the election with Maoist electoral symbol.

Likewise 22 MPs from UML and 6 from Maoists voted against Pandey. 

Even though Devkota was elected on the Maoist party symbol, he crossed the floor and gave a vote of confidence to the Chief Minister. Devkota has been claiming that he is not a member of the Maoist parliamentary party, but a member of the state assembly of Nepal Samajwadi Party. Due to his floor cross, the position of Pandey, who was appointed Chief Minister by the order of the Supreme Court as per Article 168 (3) of the Constitution, has been saved.

In the 60-member provincial assembly, Pandey needed 31 votes to get a vote of confidence. When Devkota went to vote in favor of the Chief Minister, the UML and Maoist MPs were engaged in sloganeering.