Nepal’s main opposition party, Nepali Congress (NC), has moved to oust Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and form an alternative government under his leadership with the support of the CPN-Maoist Centre (CPN-M) and other political parties.
According to a Reuters report today, the Nepali Congress Party launched an operation to overthrow Prime Minister KP Oli and form a government. Earlier senior Nepali Congress leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” said the new government will be formed soon.
According to senior Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh, the Nepali Congress Central Working Committee decided on Saturday to take the initiative and form a new government under its leadership. Singh said the Congress party will ask Prime Minister Oli to step down and allow a new government to be formed. If he does not resign, the NCP will move a no-confidence motion against him in the House and take the initiative to form a new government to salvage past democratic achievements, he said. He added that as Prime Minister Oli’s unconstitutional move poses a threat to democracy, the retrogression threatens the democratic republican system that was hard won by the people through various movements.
The senior Nepali Congress leader said:- “As Nepal’s main opposition and a key partner in the 2015 constitution-making process, we have a responsibility to protect democracy.”
In December last year, Prime Minister Oli dissolved the House of Representatives, sparking a political crisis in Nepal. However, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court restored the power of the lower house of parliament in February. The country’s political situation deteriorated further last month after the Supreme Court invalidated the merger of CPN-MC and CPN-UML. The two parties merged in May 2018 to form the unified Communist Party of Nepal after winning the 2017 general election.
Speaking to the Press Trust of India (PTI), Singh said, “We will hold talks with all pro-democracy parties before forming a new government.”
According to sources, if the Nepali Congress takes the initiative to form a new government, the ruling CPN-Marxist-Leninist (uml), PPP and a faction of the CPN-Maoist Center will also join the move.
According to party sources, the government led by Prime Minister Oli will lose its majority in the lower house if the cpn -Maoist center led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda withdraws its support.
On Saturday, Prachanda said the political situation in the country has taken a new turn after the Nationalist Congress Party decided to ask Prime Minister Oli to resign and take the initiative to form the next government under his leadership. He said in a program:I will intensify negotiations with political parties and I am hopeful about the formation of the new government and the way things will unfold.” Prachanda told participants in the program that a new government would soon be formed and a new political atmosphere would emerge.
A senior leader of the CPN-Maoist Center said the CPN will withdraw its support to Oli’s government, which will pave the way for the formation of an alternative government under the Nepali Congress. Meanwhile, a Maoist party standing committee meeting scheduled for Sunday was postponed because most of the party’s members were out of town in Kathmandu. At the party’s next standing committee meeting, it is likely that a decision will be taken to withdraw support for the Oli government.
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