WORLD NEWS | Nepal PM Prachanda faces confidence vote

KATHMANDU, March 20 (PTI) — Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ will face a confidence vote in parliament on Monday, the second-floor test for him in three months after the formation of the new government.

On Sunday, Prachanda exuded confidence that he would easily win a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives.

Read also | The Indian High Commission in London vandalized: a man arrested in connection with vandalism by a pro-Khalistan group, mayor Sadiq Khan condemns the incident.

Prachanda, 68, needs to seek a vote of confidence after two parties in the seven-party coalition – the Bharatiya Janata Party and UMAL – withdrew their support for the government. They refused to back Prachanda’s offer to back Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Poudel for the presidency.

Prachanda, who was sworn in as the country’s prime minister last December, easily passed the floor test of the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR) with 268 votes on Jan. All political parties voted for the government after Janamorcha.

Read also | New York Community Bank buys defunct Signature Bank for $2.7 billion.

Speaking to reporters after stepping out of the parliament building, Prime Minister Prachanda said he hoped to get all the votes on Monday.

“Last time, I got the support of 99% of the House of Representatives, and I hope to get 100% of the vote this time,” he said.

Earlier, the prime minister told coalition partners he would conduct ground tests on March 20.

The 10 party coalition partners are CPN-Maoist Centre, Nepali Congress Party, CPN (United Socialists), Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, Janamat Party, Rastriya Jan Morcha, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party -Nepal, Nepal Democratic Unionist Party and Aam Janata Party.

Nepal’s Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, has decided to vote for Prachanda on Monday and join the government after a vote of confidence.

“The Nepalese Congress has decided to support the government led by Prachanda during the vote of confidence and once the vote of confidence is passed, our party will join the government,” Prakashman Singh, the party’s senior leader, told PTI.

At this point, the Nepalese Parliament, Rastria Swatantra Party and the United Socialist Nepal Party announced that they would vote for Prachanda, which was enough for the Prime Minister to win a vote of confidence.

The combined strength of the parties was 151, which was enough to win a vote of confidence in 275 MPs with 138 votes.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)