New Delhi: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Tuesday, January 10, passed the parliamentary floor test with flying colours, with nearly all the major political parties in the country voting in his favour.
The vote of confidence was supported by the Nepali Congress, which decided at the last-minute meeting to back the Maoist leader in the House of Representatives.
Dahal’s Maoist Centre had stood in parliamentary elections as part of a pre-poll alliance with the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist). However, in a surprise move, he broke away from the coalition and formed a government with the rival CPN (Unified Marxist Leninist) and other parties on December 25.
The Nepali Congress had emerged as the largest political party in the parliament with 88 seats, while the CPN-UML came second with 78 seats.
The Maoist Centre was a distant third with 32 seats. Apparently, Dahal was weaned away from the Nepali Congress alliance based on the assurance from UML leader K.P. Sharma Oli that he would be made prime minister immediately.
As per Nepali media, Dahal received 268 votes in the 275-member chamber.
Dahal’s approval had been a formality as the Maoist Centre-UML alliance had already secured the support of 169 lawmakers, which was more than the required majority.
Earlier on Monday evening, Dahal met with his former alliance partner, Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, to seek his support for the confidence vote.
A day later, the Nepali Congress’s key executives agreed to vote in support of Dahal, despite division of opinion among the party leaders, as per the Kathmandu Post.
Among the 12 parties elected to the parliament, only the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party and Rastriya Janamorcha, with one seat each, voted against the confidence motion.
Meanwhile, the ruling alliance had released a Common Minimum Programme on Monday, which included a pledge to bring “back the territories of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulek that are currently occupied by India”.
According to the Kathmandu Post, the issue would be the “top priority” during Dahal’s visit to India for his first foreign tour. The dates for Dahal’s India visit have not yet been decided, but it is not likely to take place this month.