Prachanda-led govt will survive despite withdrawal of CPN-UML support: Expert

Nepali Congress with 89 seats and the Rashtriya Swatantra Party with 20 lawmakers are backing Prachanda led govt.

PTI, Kathmandu, Feb 27, 2023 : Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-led coalition government will survive despite the withdrawal of support by the second largest party in Parliament as the Nepali Congress with 89 seats and the Rashtriya Swatantra Party with 20 lawmakers are backing the Prime Minister, according to constitutional experts and political leaders.

The prime reason for the break-up of the alliance between Prachanda and former prime minister K P Sharma Oli led CPN-UML was the Maoist leader’s decision to support senior Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Ram Chandra Paudel for the President’s post.

“With the support from Nepali Congress, which commands 89 seats in the House of Representatives and other parties, the Prachanda-led government will survive even though it is required to seek a fresh vote of confidence,” said senior journalist and editor of Nagarik daily Gunaraj Luitel.

In the 275-member House, the UML has 79 lawmakers while CPN (Maoist Center) has 32. CPN (Unified Socialist) and RSP have 10 and 20 members, respectively. Janamat Party has 6 members, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party 4 and Nagarik Unmukti Party 3 members in the parliament.

The RSP has decided to continue its support to the government.

Prachanda needs only 138 votes in parliament to continue as the prime minister.

“Although some political sections have raised voices to form a left alliance it has failed to materialise, as Prachanda found it comfortable to work with the democratic party Nepali Congress led by Sher Bahadur Deuba than leftist CPN-UML led by Oli, which ultimately resulted in breaking of the seven-party alliance formed just a couple of months ago,” Luitel said.

“These days politics is no more guided by ideology, rather it is being guided by practical aspects,” he added.

When Prachanda sought a vote of confidence after forming the coalition government under his leadership, Nepali Congress, despite being the opposition party, voted in his favour, a move which helped Deuba to woo support from Prachanda in favour of the Nepali Congress candidate for president.

“The Prachanda-led government is required to seek a vote of confidence in the Parliament after the major ruling alliance CPN-UML withdrew its support,” said senior Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh. “However, the government led by Prachanda will have no difficulty surviving the vote with the support from Nepali Congress and other political parties,” he added.

“Whether Prachanda will seek the vote of confidence before the presidential election or after depends upon the Prime Minister and the eight-party alliance is working out a strategy on how to move forward in the new political scenario,” Singh said.

Nepali Congress will certainly join the coalition government as the old seven-party alliance has already broken with the emergence of new eight-party alliance, said Singh, the former deputy prime minister.

Among the seven-party alliance, which earlier backed Prachanda, five political parties have decided to continue their support to the coalition government.

The eight-party alliance includes the Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Janamat Party, Janta Samajwadi Party, Lokatantrik Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the eight political parties has formed a task force to prepare for the upcoming presidential election. The meeting has urged one and all to support NC’s candidate Poudyal for the post of president.