Nepal PM Oli set to face vote of confidence in Parliament today

CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) leader and Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli is set to face a confidence vote in Parliament on Monday.

A special Parliamentary session is set to take place where the fate of PM Oli will be decided, the session is scheduled to start from 1 PM (local time) on Monday afternoon.

PM Oli faces a confidence vote after alliance partner NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) withdrew support last month.

Parliament secretariat has also made special arrangements for COVID positive MPs to participate in the vote.

Nepal's Parliament Secretariat has issued a probable schedule of Monday's meeting where senior leaders would make statements at the beginning of the meeting and then head for voting.

Earlier this week Nepal's Federal Parliament members underwent RT-PCR COVID tests from Wednesday ahead of the special session.

"Over two dozen lawmakers who have tested positive for COVID-19 also would betaking part in the voting, arrangements have been made for them as well," ParliamentSecretariat sources told ANI.

CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) has 121 seatsin Parliament.

Former PM Madhav Kumar is leading the rival faction. It had demanded that the government address their grievances earlier on Monday, also adding he would cast his vote against Oli if the government failed to address his demands.

The rival faction has been demanding to scrap of earlier decisions of Oli to form a GeneralConvention Committee, "cancel all the decisions made after party unification attemptsand work together on existing problems that are surfacing inside the party".

Along with the demands, the rival faction of the ruling party also has threatened to resignen-masse which would further endanger Oli to continue as Prime Minister.

Ahead of Monday's voting, the ruling CPN-UML also has issued a whip to all lawmakersbelonging to a party to cast their votes in favor of the Prime Minister and party's parliamentaryleader KP Sharma Oli.

"The whip was issued as per the Political Party Act-2017 and UML's ParliamentaryParty Statue-2021. It has been made mandatory for all the lawmakers to attend thespecial session and vote in favor of Prime Minister Oli," Bishal Bhattarai, Chief Whip ofthe party confirmed.

Oli would require 136 votes to claim control over the floor of Parliament and continue hisPrime Ministership but the prevailing situation in parliament would not help Oli to garnermajority as he falls sort of 15 votes in the parliament.

The Opposition Nepali Congress has decided to vote against Oli. It has 61 seatsin Parliament. While Maoist Center having 49 seats and later withdrew its support tothe government has also decided to vote against Oli.

Janata Samajbadi Party has a decisive role in the parliament with 32 lawmakershas decided to let its Parliamentary members let decide on their own whether to supportor go against Oli.

( With inputs from ANI )

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