Nepal's parliament convenes Friday afternoon after a long gap of four years with a million-dollar question: where is the opposition?Elected in 1999, the House of Representatives, the decision-making lower house, had seven parliamentary parties and 205 MPs.
The government was run by the biggest, Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress with 113 seats.
The biggest opposition party was the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist with 69 seats.
However, since the dissolution of the house in May 2002, the two parties have formed an alliance and the new government would include both.
That leaves the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which was the third largest party in parliament with 11 members, as the main opposition party.
But since 2005, when King Gyanendra seized power through a coup, the RPP split into three factions.
Of the remaining four smaller parties, three have joined the Koirala-led alliance and the fourth has again split with one in the alliance and one supporting the king.
So when the house convenes Friday, there would be no immediate clearly defined leader of opposition.
There would be no immediate speaker either since Nepali Congress member Taranath Ranabhat was forced to resign Wednesday for his dubious conduct during King Gyanendra's absolute rule.
(IANS)
