PM Deuba to take vote of confidence within few days

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is making preparations to take a vote of confidence within a few days.

The Supreme Court (SC) has already given an order to call the meeting of the reinstated House of Representatives (HoR) for July 18.

Preparations are underway to take a vote of confidence within few days after the start of the House meeting, said a leader close to Deuba.

A  Constitutional provision has it that  Prime Minister Deuba has to take a vote of confidence in the next one month from the day of his appointment.

“Prime Minister Deuba is making preparations to take the vote of confidence within a few days after the start of the House meeting,” said a leader close to Deuba, adding, “He is holding discussions with CPN-UML leaders and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).”

Deuba held a meeting with UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal at his residence in Koteshwor on Wednesday, for the time following his appointment as the Prime Minister.

As many as 23 UML lawmakers including Nepal had played a significant role to make Duba the Prime Minister.

Deuba is making preparations to take the vote of confidence with the support of leader Nepal and the JSP.  Yadav-Bhattarai faction of the JSP had extended support to Deuba to become the Prime Minister.

The JSP is currently divided.  Earlier, Thakur-Mahato faction of the JSP had stood with KP Sharma Oli. Of 32 lawmakers, Thakur-Mahato faction had 20 lawmakers while Yadav-Bhattarai had 12 lawmakers then. The Nepal-Khanal faction has 23 lawmakers.

A total of 138 lawmakers are necessary to secure the vote of confidence in the Parliament. Currently, Nepali Congress has 61 lawmakers and CPN (Maoist Center) has 48. Deuba needs 29 more lawmakers to garner simple majority.

Former Prime Minister Oli had tendered his resignation on May 10.  Following Oli’s resignation, President Bidya Bhandari had called on the political parties to form a government in line with Article 76 (2) of the Constitution.

Nepali Congress had taken the initiative to form the government with the help of JSP, Maoist Center but failed to do so due to the Thakur-Mahato faction.