Nepal PM to seek vote of confidence in next Parliamentary meeting

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is set to take a vote of confidence during a special session of the House of Representatives (HoRs), which has been summoned for May 10 by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

Issuing a release on Sunday evening, the Office of the President announced the next meeting of HoRs to commence from next week also stating that PM KP Sharma Oli would be taking a vote of confidence during the session.

"Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on the basis of Article 100, Sub-article (1) would take a vote of confidence in House of Representatives to test the floor, for which the President exercising Article 93 sub-article 1 of Constitution of Nepal has summoned next meeting of the house for 10 May 2021," release from Office of the President mentioned.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Sunday evening recommended the President to call the meeting of the Lower House for next week where Oli would test the floor to prove support in his favor.

Out of 275 seats in the Lower House, the CPN-UML led by Oli has 121 seats while the opposition Nepali Congress has 63 and CPN- Maoist Center has 49 seats after 4 of the MP's representing the party were exempted.

The Janata Samajbadi Party has 34 seats, Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party, Rastriya Janamorcha, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and an independent has one seat each in the parliament. 2 MP's each from Nepali Congress and JanataSamajbadi Party are currently exempted by each of the party.

As of now, the Maoist Center hasn't withdrawn its support to Oli after the verdict of the Supreme Court which earlier in February had annulled unification between CPN-UML and Maoist Center. In order to remain in the post, the Prime Minister would require to garner 138 votes in his favor.

( With inputs from ANI )