Gandaki Province still in the mist on new government

KATHMANDU: Gandaki Province is still in the mist about the new Chief Minister as the prospective candidate to claim the post has not formally come forward with the legal claim yet.

After Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung resigned on Sunday (May 9), Chief of Province Sita Kumari Poudel called on political parties to submit claims for government formation.

Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-Maoist Center and Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) are bidding to form a new government with NC provincial parliamentary party (PP) leader Krishna Chandra Nepali leading the pack as proposed Chief Minister.

In the 60-member Provincial Assembly, Nepali needs support of 31 lawmakers to form a new government.

However, one of the Rastriya Janamorcha (RJ) lawmaker Krishna Thapa has obstructed the process by declining to support Nepali. With this, the government formation process is in limbo in the province.

While the CPN-UML has 27 lawmakers, NC has 15, and the Maoist has 12 lawmakers. Likewise, there are three MPs from Rastriya Janamorcha, two from Janata Samajwadi Party and one independent.