Kathmandu, July 2: The two largest parties in the federal parliament Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have agreed to form a new coalition.
Congress and UML have agreed to form a government of ‘national consensus’ with the agenda of amending the constitution.
After a long discussion and homework, the top leaders of the two parties, KP Sharma Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba, signed the agreement at 12:30 midnight on Monday.
According to the agreement, in the first phase, UML Chairman Oli will lead the government, while in the second phase, after a year and half, Congress President Deuba will become the prime minister.
An agreement has also been reached to form a recommendation commission to amend the constitution on matters such as the election system. The commission will recommend modalities to scrap proportional representation in the House of Representatives and provinceial assemblies, downsize the number of seats in the parliament, assign vice president as the chair of national assembly, among others.
There is a preliminary understanding that UML, which is leading the government, will take 9 ministries including finance and Congress will take 10 ministries including home affairs.
With the Congress-UML agreement, the government led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who has changed alliances three times since the election, is on the verge of dissolution.
With UML withdrawing support from the government, Dahal is certain to be in the minority. In that case, he will have the option of resigning immediately or taking a vote of confidence.
For that, it has been agreed to informally request Dahal to resign, otherwise the UML ministers participating in the government will resign collectively and withdraw their support to the government.
Deuba and Oli also informed President Ramchandra Poudel about the agreement reached between the two parties at midnight.
