Nepal PM Oli to seek vote of confidence on May 10

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is facing a crisis inside his own party, is to seek a vote of confidence on May 10.
The decision was taken as Oli was increasingly facing non-cooperation from one section of his own Nepal Communist Party-Unified Marxist-Leninist and the Nepal Communist Party-Maoist Centre has threatened to pull out from the government.
A section of Oli’s own party led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is not happy with Oli, who is also the party Chairman, since the formation of this government some three years back, accusing him of working unilaterally as head of the government and the party.
In the midst of this confusion, the Prime Minister has decided to seek a vote of confidence and decided to summon the house on May 10 for the purpose, agriculture and livestock minister, Padma Kumari Aryal told IANS.
If Oli fails to garner a majority, then either he will dissolve the house and declare elections or will seek support from other parties to run the government for the remaining two years.
The rift between Oli and Nepal widened after Oli dissolved the Parliament on December 10. However in February, Nepal’s Supreme Court reinstated the Parliament but relations between Oli and Nepal soured further after Oli suspended him and some other senior party leaders close to him for six months.
The Nepal faction is also creating parallel party structures after animosity grew with Oli. After facing non-cooperation from within the party, now the Prime Minister has decided to seek a vote of confidence, the minister said.
Out of 121 seats, Oli has support of 86 lawmakers while the Nepal faction holds sway over 35. It is not sure whether the Nepal faction will cross the floor against his own party’s chairman. But the Nepal faction has been crossing the floors in some provinces, so it is likely to cross the floor or abstain from the trust vote, said party leaders.
In the 271-member House of Representatives, the CPN-UML has 121 seats, the Nepali Congress 63, the CPN-Maoist Centre of former PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal 49, the Janata Samajbadi Party 34, and smaller parties four seats.