Speaker of the provincial assembly in Bagmati Sanu Kumar Shrestha has called off the assembly meeting against the agreement to hold discussion on no-confidence motion against Chief Minister (CM) Dormani Paudel.
Standing committee member of the Dahal-Nepal faction of CPN and its parliamentary party leader in Bagmati Ashta Laxmi Shakya claimed that the meeting scheduled fro Wednesday has been indefinitely called off under instruction from the center. "We all including Nepali Congress (NC) sat together and agreed to discuss the no-confidence motion. But he has obeyed the instructions from above over the agreement with parties in the provincial assembly. Speaker couldn't give his decision," Shakya opined.
She claimed that the parties had agreed to discuss on the no-confidence motion on Wednesday and then go for voting.
Forty-five provincial assembly members of the Dahal-Nepal faction had registered the no-confidence motion against CM Paudel. The faction had proposed to make Ashta Laxmi Shakya the new CM while registering the no-confidence motion.
There are 80 members from CPN, 22 from Nepali Congress (NC), three from the then Bibeksheel Party, two each from Nepal Workers and Peasant Party and RPP, and one from the then Naya Shakti Party in the 110-strong Bagmati provincial assembly.
Both CM Paudel and Speaker Shrestha are from the faction of Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli.
Physical Infrastructure Minister of Bagmati Rameshwore Phuyal told Setopati that lack of working procedure about voting on no-confidence motion has created problems. He pointed that a task force was formed for that but it has yet to submit its report.
"There are even talks about no vote now. But our regulation does not have that. It has been delayed as working procedure has not been prepared about how to deal with no-confidence motion," he elaborated. "CPN has yet to split legally on the other hand. Election symbol has yet to be decided. I understand that the meeting has been postponed deeming that we should move forward on the basis of consensus in such situation."
He claimed that Speaker Shrestha did not agree to discuss no-confidence motion during the meeting with parties.
The meeting of provincial assembly called for two Wednesday afternoon was called off sending SMS to the lawmakers at six in the morning.
