Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, popularly known as Prachanda, needs to seek another vote of confidence in the House of Representatives after a party in the ruling alliance withdrew its support to the government. The decision was taken by the top leaders of the ruling coalition, including Prime Minister Prachanda, Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-Unified Socialist president Madhav Kumar Nepal, and Janata Samajwadi Party president Upendra Yadav, at a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.
The Prachanda-led government enjoys a comfortable majority in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR) even after the Rastriya Swatantra Party led by Ravi Lamichhane withdrew its support to the government. However, the RSP’s withdrawal of support has made it necessary for the Prime Minister to seek another vote of confidence in the HoR.
The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which won two seats out of three in the recently-concluded by-elections, withdrew its support to the government on Friday after it failed to reach a power-sharing deal with Prime Minister Prachanda. The RSP alleged that the Prachanda government has failed to address corruption issues. The RSP, the fourth-largest party in Nepal’s Parliament, has 22 lawmakers in the lower house.
Even though the RSP left the government in February, it did not withdraw its support “for the sake of stability.” Prachanda, who was appointed Prime Minister in December, took the vote of confidence for the first time in January and again in March this year.
Nepal has been struggling with political instability for years. The country has had 25 governments in the last 30 years, and the average tenure of a Prime Minister is less than a year. The current political crisis comes at a time when Nepal is facing a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, and the government’s response to the pandemic has been widely criticized. The government’s handling of the pandemic has further exacerbated public frustration and anger towards the ruling parties.
In conclusion, the withdrawal of support by the Rastriya Swatantra Party has made it necessary for Prime Minister Prachanda to seek another vote of confidence in the House of Representatives. The political instability in Nepal, compounded by the pandemic, has created a difficult situation for the government, and the Prime Minister will have to work to address the concerns of the RSP and other parties in the ruling alliance to maintain the stability of the government.