Kathmandu: Nepals new Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, won the vote of trust on Tuesday, receiving 268 votes in the 275-member Parliament.
This is the first time in the history of Nepal’s Parliament that a Prime Minister received such overwhelming support from different political parties.
At present, there are 12 parties in the House, out of which 10 have supported Prachanda’s bid. Earlier, while claiming the post of Prime Minister, Prachanda was supported by only 168 members.
More political parties, including Nepali Congress, which is the largest party in the House, have now extended support to Prachanda.
“With the support of opposition parties, I have received unprecedented support. I see this as a huge opportunity,” Prachanda said.
Only two votes were casted against his proposal to seek a vote of trust on Tuesday afternoon.
Even Nepali Congress, the single-largest party in the Parliament which was declared to sit in the opposition bench, also supported Prachanda.
As many as 270 members of the parliament were present in Tuesday’s session. Only the Rastriya Janamorcha and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, both having one member each, voted against the proposal.
Nepali Congress, the party which emerged as the largest force in the elections held in November, and the party that had earlier denied sharing power with Maoist chairperson Prachanda, decided to vote in the latter’s favour during the floor-test on Tuesday.
Besides Nepali Congress, CPNUML and CPNMaoist Centre, Prachanda has garnered support from the Rashtriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, CPN (Unified Socialist), Janamat Party, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and some Independent members of the Parliament.
The Rastriya Janamorcha and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party will sit in the opposition.
With Nepali Congress’ decision to vote in Prachanda’s favour, the Parliament does not have any effective opposition now.