Kathmandu, July 5: Upset over the removal of its minister from the Sudurpaschim provincial cabinet, the Nagarik Unmukti Party (NUP) has decided to shift to the opposition at both provincial and federal levels.
On Friday, the party’s provincial parliamentary wing withdrew support from the Nepali Congress-led Sudurpaschim government. Meanwhile, NUP Chair Ranjita Shrestha has instructed the party’s federal leader Ganga Ram Chaudhary to call a meeting to decide on a similar move at the national level. Chaudhary, who leads the party in the House of Representatives, confirmed he would convene the meeting upon returning to Kathmandu. Currently, NUP has four lawmakers in the lower house and one minister—Arun Kumar Chaudhary—in the Oli-led federal government.
The party is enraged over Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah’s dismissal of Rameshwor Chaudhary, its minister for industry, tourism, and forest. NUP now follows the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP-Nepal), which recently resolved to quit the ruling alliance, citing government failures on corruption control, governance, economic revival, and constitutional amendments.
JSP-Nepal, which has five seats in the House and three in the National Assembly, had supported the government without joining the Cabinet. Its lawmaker Rekha Yadav said the parliamentary party would meet Saturday to formalize the central committee’s directive to withdraw support. As per Article 100(2) of Nepal’s Constitution, a prime minister must seek a vote of confidence if a coalition partner withdraws support. Legal experts, however, say a floor test is only mandatory when the ruling coalition risks falling into a minority.
Despite NUP and JSP-Nepal’s planned exit, the CPN-UML–Congress alliance still enjoys a comfortable majority in the 275-member House, where 138 seats are needed. Yet, the coalition lacks a majority in the National Assembly, raising concerns over bill endorsements without JSP-Nepal’s backing. In the past, prime ministers have responded differently to such developments. While Oli skipped a floor test in 2019 after losing Upendra Yadav’s support, Pushpa Kamal Dahal faced the House last year despite maintaining a majority.
Though the federal government remains stable for now, legislative hurdles could emerge, especially in the upper house.
People's News Monitoring Service