KATHMANDU: The CPN Unified Socialist is preparing to claim the post of Chief Minister of Bagmati Province.

Chief Minister Ashta Laxmi Shakya is in the minority as 12 lawmakers of CPN-UML have chosen the Unified Socialist.

The UML had 56 MPs in the 109-member Bagmati Provincial Assembly (PA). Shakya was appointed as the chief minister getting then CM Dor Mani Poudel to resign after she agreed to stay in UML deserting senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal faction. However, on the same day Shakya was appointed CM, split in the UML and the new Unified Socialist party was declared.

The Election Commission (EC) registered the Unified Socialist on August 25 and has given until September 7 to local level representatives and provincial representatives of the UML to verify themselves before election offices concerned to join the newly-formed party.

As many as 12 Bagmati PA members verified themselves before the office of the Provincial Election Commission in Hetauda Tuesday and stated that they wanted to join the Unified Socialist. With this, the number of UML lawmakers in Bagmati PA has dropped to 44, thus CM Shakya is set to lose a comfortable majority.

“The EC will announce the number of lawmakers in the Unified Socialist on September 8, which will be presented in the PA immediately,” said Rajendra Pandey, a lawmaker from the Unified Socialist Party. “That day the government will officially be in the minority.”

Stating that there was no way to save this government, he said that a new government would be formed under the leadership of the Unified Socialist.

When asked who would be the chief ministerial candidate, Pandey said, “The party has presented me. Even in the ruling coalition, I am a consensus candidate.”