Oli’s party withdraws support to Nepal PM

Kathmandu: Nepal’s second largest party in Parliament - CPN-UML - on Monday withdrew its support to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”-led government following a rift over backing the main opposition party’s candidate for the presidential poll, plunging the Himalayan nation to another spell of political instability.

“A high-level meeting of the party held under the leadership of party chief K P Sharma Oli on Monday decided to quit the government and withdraw the party’s support to the Prachanda-led government,” Bishnu Rijal, deputy chief of the party’s central publicity committee, told PTI.

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

Paudel is from the Nepali Congress, an opposition party, and from outside the ruling alliance. Nepal’s Presidential election will be held on March 9.

The exit of CPN-UML may not immediately affect the Prachanda-led government, which is supported by the NC which has 89 lawmakers in the House.

As Prime Minister Prachanda violated the December 25 agreement while forming the seven-party coalition government and betrayed the Communist Party of Nepal-(Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML), the party took the decision to leave the government, Rijal said.

The UML ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudyal and Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Poudyal, have submitted their resignations to the Prime Minister. There were eight UML ministers in the Prachanda-led government.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Swatantra Party led by former TV journalist Ravi Lamichhane has decided to continue its support to the government, said Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, deputy Parliamentary Party leader of RSP.

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