Nepal's Province No. 2 names Madhes and Janakpur as permanent capital

The Province No. 2 Assembly has decided to name the province as "Madhes" and "Janakpur" as the permanent capital.

A meeting of the provincial assembly held on Monday after hours of deliberation voted with the majority for Janakpur as the capital and Madhes as its name.

Province Assembly Speaker Saroj Kumar Yadav announced that 80 out of 99 members voted in support of the proposal for the name and the provincial capital. Monday's vote has exceeded two-thirds of the Assembly's current strength as required by the constitution.

The ruling Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), Maoist centre and the opposition Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), had jointly proposed the name Madhes.

The JSP had 39 lawmakers, Maoist Center 8 and DSP 16 lawmakers, totalling 63 votes. The Nepal Federal Socialist Party, which has one seat in the State Assembly, also supported the name along with 16 lawmakers from other parties.

Some of the lawmakers at the provincial assembly had come forward with the proposal to name "Birgunj" as provincial capital but failed to garner the required votes.

Nepali Congress (NC) had proposed 'Mithila Bhojpura', CPN-Unified Socialist and CPN-UML together had proposed 'Janaki' and another NC lawmaker Rajeshwar Sah had proposed 'Madhya Madhes'.

It has already been more than six years since the constitution's promulgation, but Province 1 and Province 2 had been waiting to finalise their own names. With Monday's move, the remaining province to be named is Province no. 1.

( With inputs from ANI )

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