POKHARA: The Gandaki Province Assembly (PA) meeting, scheduled for Friday, has been postponed till 1 pm on May 28 due to the absence of Nepali Congress (NC) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) lawmakers.

As the matter regarding the Gandaki Provincial Government is sub judice in the Supreme Court, the main opposition party NC had previously boycotted the parliamentary session.

Today’s meeting saw the absence of two RPP lawmakers as well.

After reading out Province Chief Dilliraj Bhatta’s letter detailing the division of responsibilities, Speaker Krishna Prasad Dhital announced the postponement of the meeting citing the absence of opposition party lawmakers.

Following the announcement of Chief Minister Khag Raj Adhikari receiving the vote of confidence from 30 out of the 60 members in the Gandaki Province Assembly, NC parliamentary party leader in the province, Surendraraj Pandey, has moved Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Chief Minister.

The SC is scheduled to hear the case on May 27.

Previously, in Gandaki, a vote of confidence was passed in favor of CM Adhikari, with the support of 30 members, including 22 from the CPN-UML, seven from CPN-Maoist Center, and one independent lawmaker Rajeev Gurung alias Deepak Manange.

NC had voted against CM Adhikari whereas RPP had remained neutral in the voting.