Kathmandu, July 18: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has started the exercise of gathering the support of more than two-thirds of the members when he took the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives on Sunday. Prime Minister Oli has adopted the strategy of taking the fringe parties into confidence and reaching two-thirds of the votes.
According to the constitution, support of 138 MPs is needed to get a vote of confidence in the 275-member House of Representatives.
To reach two-thirds, the support of 184 MPs is required. Now, Prime Minister Oli has the support of 177 MPs including 78 from CPN-UML, 88 from Nepali Congress, 7 from Janata Samajwadi Party (Ashok Rai) and 4 from Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP). These four parties have already joined in the government.
But Prime Minister Oli needs 7 more MPs to reach two-thirds. For that, he has started consultation with other parties. Oli has prepared to hold a dialogue with JSP Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav for the vote of confidence.
Similarly, he is discussing to take Janamat Party Chairman CK Raut into confidence. With the support of the UML, Janamat is leading the Madhesh province government.
Now, Upendra’s JSP Nepal has 5 MPs and CK Raut’s Janamat has 6 seats in the HoR.
Also, Prime Minister Oli is currently in discussions with the President of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Rajendra Lingden. The RPP has indicated its support based on the Congress-UML agenda of constitutional amendment and reconsideration of the federal structure. But with the plan to cooperate with Oli in amending the constitution, RPP is also preparing to move forward by giving him a vote of confidence.
According to the constitution, a vote of confidence must be taken in the House of Representatives within 30 days of the appointment of the Prime Minister.
Before taking the vote of confidence, PM Oli will be addressing the House of Representatives. The coalition partners, particularly CPN UML and Nepali Congress, have not disclosed their agenda of constitution amendment yet. The opposition parties, including CPN (Maoist Centre) have demanded to make public the views and agreement between UML-NC.
According to sources, both CPN UML and Nepali Congress have decided to form a high level constitution review commission to suggest for the modality on reforming the election process for House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies. Many believe that the new KP Oli-led coalition will scrap proportional representation in the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies.
In their views, the proportional representation was the main cause of political instability in the country due to which no parties would be able to garner clear majority in the House.
