Prachanda wins third vote of confidence in 14 months

Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda on Wednesday won third vote of confidence in the last 14 months. Speaker Devraj Ghimire said that PM Prachanda secured 157 votes while 110 lawmakers voted against him. Parliament secretariat said that out of 275 members, only 268 were present in the house during the voting process. PM Prachanda was supported by UML, Rashtriya Swatantra Party, CPN (Unified Socialist) and some independent lawmakers. Earlier, PM Prachanda parted ways with the Nepali Congress and formed a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) and other parties. He became Nepal’s Prime Minister in December 2022 with the support of CPN-UML and within two months, he ditched the political alliance with UML and joined the hands with Nepali Congress. In March 2023, he secured the second vote of confidence with the support of the Nepali Congress and inducted the minister from the party. But his political bonhomie with the Nepali Congress did not sustain for more than one year. In the first week of March, Prachanda ditched his partnership with the Nepali Congress and joined hands with the UML and other parties which some describe as a pro-Beijing alliance. UML Chairman K P Oli has made clear that China had no role in the recent government change in Kathmandu. “It is we exercised and built the new alliance, not China,” he said while brushing off the speculation that China brought the communist parties of Nepal together like in 2018. Addressing the meeting of the House of Representatives, Prachanda said that it was necessary for the government to get the confidence vote to improve the economy and for overall political instability. “I need the support of the parliament to feel proud of nationalism, self-worth and sovereignty.