In a dramatic turn of events, Kedar Karki, a member of the provincial assembly of the Nepali Congress faction, became the chief minister of Koshi province on Saturday.
Opposing the party’s decision to support Indra Bahadur Angbo of the CPN (Maoist Centre) in the chief ministerial race, eight provincial assembly members from the Congress in the country’s eastern province have decided to form a Karki-led government with the support of the CPN -UML. While 21 party members supported Angbo as per the decision of the Congress top group, eight who were close to dissident Congress leader Shekhar Koirala refused to oblige. Karki became the chief minister with the support of 39 legislators from the UML in the 93-member provincial assembly.
After their efforts to secure the premiership for Angbo, the Congress, Maoist Center and CPN (United Socialist) decided to support Karki and keep their political alliance intact. As Karki goes for a floor test on Wednesday, he is sure to get support from all parties except the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which has six seats in the provincial assembly. The pro-Hindu and pro-monarchist party decided to remain neutral in Wednesday’s vote. As of now, UML has already joined the government with a ministry.
βThis is our government. The other parties were forced to support Karki as they had no other option,β Revati Raman Bahadari, UML chief in the provincial assembly, told the Post. βWe will vote for Karki tomorrow [Wednesday].β
It is clear that the Karki-led government will get a huge majority in the floor test. However, this is not going to end the endless political game in Koshi province, which has just had its fifth government in less than a year.
The UML demanded the post of President in return for its support to the Karki government. The post remains vacant after the resignation of chairman Baburam Gautam on August 1. Gautam resigned as per the decision of the Maoist Centre, the party from which he was elected to the provincial assembly, as he could not support the formation of the Congress and Maoist Center Government given his role as President. His support would have secured a majority in the province.
Currently, UML holds the position of deputy chairman. He must resign from the position according to the constitution to run for the position of President. Article 182(2) of the constitution says that there shall be one woman from the President and Vice President of the province and both must be from different parties.
“We have a claim to the position of President. Being the largest party, it is our legitimate claim,β Bhandari said. However, members of the provincial assembly, including those from the Kedar Karki faction, are undecided. The Parliament has not yet decided on the election of a new President.
βWe haven’t entered that chapter yet. There is no decision to support the UML for the post of President,β Man Bahadur Limbu of the dissident Congress faction told the Post. “Let’s see how the situation develops.” For the election of the President, the support of 47 members of the assembly is required.
With 40 seats, the UML is the largest party in the assembly. Congress has 29 seats, CPN (Maoist Centre) 12, RPP six, United Socialist four and Janata Samajbadi Party one seat.
UML needs the support of seven more legislators to contest the seat. This will be enough even if only eight MPs from the Karki faction support it. The support for the UML President candidate could be an early test of the new coalition’s resilience in the province.
However, their party, the Congress, may issue a whip to prevent its legislators from supporting the UML candidate.
Karki was appointed chief minister under Article 168(5) of the constitution, according to which a member of the provincial assembly can contest for the chief ministerial post by providing the support of the majority members. No party whip applies in the formation of a government under this article. But the situation would be different for the position of President.
βThe eight dissenting members of the provincial assembly must obey the Congress whip while voting for the Speaker. They may lose their seats if the party takes action to defy the whip,β senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi, also president of the Constitutional Lawyers Forum, told the Post.
UML leaders say they know the party whip applies in voting for President. They say that as the Congress-led alliance needs its support to prove the majority of the current government, it cannot deny them the post of President. βThe Congress-led alliance has twice failed to prove its majority. I don’t think he would want to repeat the mistake of competing with UML. We expect the Congress to support us,β Bhandari said.