Section of Nepal PM's party members won't attend floor test

Over 20 lawmakers from the disgruntled faction of the party decided to boycott the house session, Bhim Rawal said.

The special session convened by Oli to seek the vote of confidence will take place at 1 p.m.

As a result, the Prime Minister is unlikely to receive the vote from the disgruntled faction of his own party.

Earlier in the day, Oli had urged the disgruntled faction of the party to not take any decision in haste.

"I would like to draw the attention of all the lawmakers to the fact that it is not necessary to rush into any improper decision. Let's sit down together, discuss and solve any problems," he tweeted.

Oli was elected the Prime Minister in February 2018 with the support Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) whose chairman is Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda.

But the party merger was scrapped by the Supreme Court in March.

Two former Prime Ministers, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal are leading the dissatisfaction camp inside the party.

As party chairman and Prime Minister, Oli started acting unilaterally, taking decisions without consulting party leaders and continuously ignoring the advice from the top party brass.

Nepal's fight against Oli's unilateral moves in fact goes as far back as July 2014 after he was elected party chair.

Since Nepal started cozying up with Prachanda after the unification of the two parties in 2018, the unity inside the ruling party was fading away gradually and also created distance between Oli and Nepal.

The political brinkmanship reached a new height in July last year after the Prachanda-Nepal faction demanded the resignation of Oli either from the post of premier or party chairman.

Then several attempts were made to mend the fences between Oli

On December 20, 2020, Oli unilaterally dissolved the House of Representatives which induced a split in the ruling party.

--IANS ag/ksk/

( 364 Words)

2021-05-10-12:34:08 (IANS)