Prime Minister passes floor test for fourth time

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” has won the Vote of Confidence in the House of Representatives on Monday. He secured 157 votes in favour of the Vote of Confidence and 0 vote was cast against the proposal. One HoR member remained neutral during the voting.

Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire of the HoR announced that Prime Minister has passed the floor test as he got majority out of total present members of the HoR. This is the fourth time that PM Prachanda sought vote of confidence since he assumed office on December 25, 2022.

The main opposition Nepali Congress boycotted the Voting process. The voting process started amidst chanting of slogans by HoR members belonging to the Nepali Congress against Deputy PM and Home Minister Ravi Lamichhane. A large number of marshalls were mobilized to conduct the voting process smoothly as the opposition Lawmakers continued protest.

The Nepali Congress has been demanding formation of a Parliamentary probe committee to investigate into Deputy PM Lamichhane’s alleged involvement the cooperate scam. PM Prachanda had gone for the floor test for the first time on January 10, 2023. He had received 268 votes at that time.

The prime minister won the trust motion for the second time only three months later as he broke ties with the CPN-UML and forged an alliance with the Nepali Congress. He secured the support of 172 lawmakers then.

He had to seek the vote of confidence for a third time after Congress withdrew its support to the government after Prachanda again broke the alliance with Congress and joined hands with the CPN-UML and other parties on March 4.