BIRATNAGAR: The Chief Minister of Province No. 1 Hikmat Kumar Karki has garnered the vote of confidence from the province assembly meeting today.

The province assembly meeting was summoned for 1:00 pm this afternoon.

In the 93-member province assembly, UML’s Karki got 59 votes on Friday.

Karki was appointed the chief minister with the backing of UML, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).

59 lawmakers from UML, 12 from Maoist Center, six from RPP and one from JSP cast vote in favor of Karki. 28 Nepali Congress lawmakers and four CPN-Unified Socialist lawmakers did not give vote to Karki.

Maoist Center’s Baburam Gautam could not cast vote as he was elected to the role of province speaker.