Political Parties in discussion to form a new government

Pokhara—Political parties in Nepal are busy in their intraparty meetings to discuss the formation of the new government. President Bidya Devi Bhandari yesterday called the parties to come up with majority lawmakers by 5 PM today to form a new government as per article 76-5 of Nepal’s constitution, following the Council of Ministers’ decision that incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is not going to take a vote of confidence as per article 76-4 of Nepal’s Constitution.

PM Oli is the PM of the single largest party CPN-UML as per article 76-3 and he should go through a floor test within a month from his appointment day to retain his post but he didn’t wish to take a vote of confidence and asked President to take further steps to form a new government. Oli himself likes to repeat his premiership as per 76-5 but his party has not required numbers of votes. PM Oli’s CPN-UML has only 121 lawmakers but it is still unsure that the 28 lawmakers from the Madhav Nepal faction of this party would vote Oli or not.

A total of 137 lawmakers should vote for a majority government. Oli needs 16 more lawmakers to form a new government. To form a new government, PM Oli is seeking support from Janata Samajbadi Party which has 34 lawmakers but that party is also going through an intraparty dispute. Moreover, this party itself wishes to form a new government in the leadership of party leader Mahanta Thakur. The main opposition Nepali Congress and CPN-MC alliance have also not required numbers of the majority to form a new government. So, the existing parliament may see dissolution to go for farce mended from the people.

Opposition parties have accused President Bhandari of calling for parties to form a new government as per article 76-5 despite PM Oli’s resignation from his post. They have blamed the President that the formation of the new government is unconstitutional as PM is not testing the floor or tending resignation. They have said that the President should be impeached. But PM Oli’s Press Advisor Surya Thapa said that the making clear to form a new government itself turned the PM as a caretaker.