Dahal-Nepal faction of CPN has 87 HoR members, Oli 83

Sanjib Bagale

Kathmandu, March 2

The Dahal-Nepal faction has a razor thin majority in CPN parliamentary party but is worried that Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli can turn the table on it with a swing of a few lawmakers.

CPN has 174 seats in the House of Representatives (HoR) but one of the lawmakers is dead while Speaker Agni Sapkota is no longer a party lawmaker.

Both the factions claim that they have majority in the parliamentary party but Setopati after an analysis of lawmakers who have opened up has found that the Dahal-Nepal faction has 87 lawmakers and the Oli faction 83.

Tulsi Thapa, like her husband and CPN Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam, is neutral along with Lal Babu Pandit.

"We have a little higher number of lawmakers. But we also fear that the arithmetic can change in the eleventh hour because Oli has money and power," a lawmaker from the Dahal-Nepal faction confided. "Bam Dev Gautam can again be decisive in the fight of CPN parliamentary party."

The Dahal-Nepal faction fears that a few other lawmakers can also be influenced if Gautam, who is a National Assembly member, his wife Thapa and Pandit join the Oli camp. The faction believes that Pandit, who has been saying that the party should not split, can join it at last while Gautam, who confides that he feels humiliated by Oli, is also ideologically closer to the faction.

But if Gautam, his wife and Pandit all join the Oli camp the two factions will be almost equally strong even without swing of additional lawmakers. The fact that the CPN parliamentary party statute allows National Assembly members to vote for parliamentary party leader makes things still interesting.

The ruling party has 50 National Assembly members but Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina cannot vote. Both the factions are tied at 24 each and Gautam will be the tie-breaker.

Which of the two factions ultimately has majority in the parliamentary party will matter a lot but that looks set to be just a moral victory in the scheme of things where the power game is concerned.

The Dahal-Nepal faction looks set to try to topple the Oli government through no-confidence motion in the parliament rather than remove him from parliamentary party leader in what looks set to be a very tight fight if Oli does not resign and form a new party before the House session starts on March 7.

The Oli faction alone cannot have a majority in the House and the Dahal-Nepal faction plans to remove Oli with support of Nepali Congress (NC) and Janata Samajwadi party (JSP).

"We will show by removing PM Oli through no-confidence motion as the House has been reinstated," National assembly member from the Dahal-Nepal faction Ram Narayan Bidari told Setopati.

The faction can topple the Oli government with support of just the main opposition NC even if the faction has only 80 HoR members.

The two factions, however, will fight till the end for the moral victory in the parliamentary party. The Oli faction has called the parliamentary party meeting on March 6. Proving majority there if not anything else will give Oli the bragging rights even if it may not give him a leg up in the fight against no-confidence motion.

	Dahal-Nepal & Oli faction of CPN
House of Representatives		National Assembly
Speaker Agni Sapkota	1	Chairman, Ganesh Timilsina	1
Active	172	Active	49
Total	174	Total	50
Dahal-Nepal		KP OLI
House of Representatives	National Assembly	House of Representatives	National Assembly
Puspakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda	Narayan Kaji Shrestha	KP Sharma Oli	Sumitra BK
Madhav Kumar Nepal	Beduram Bhushal	Bishnu Poudel	Bhagwati Neupane
Jhalanath Khanal	Dina Nath Sharma	Subash Chandra Nembang	Dil Kumari Rawal
Krishna Bahadur Mahara	Parshu Ram Meghi Gurung	Ishwore Pokharel	Chandra Bahadur Thapa
Dev Prasad Gurung	Ganga Kumari Belbase	Nawaraj Silwal	Kabita Bogati
Devendra Poudel	Gopi Bahadur Achhami	Gokul Baskota	Indu Kadariya
Surendra Karki	Jag Prasad Sharma	Krishna Prasad Dahal	Indira Devi Gautam
Giriraj Mani Pokharel	Tara Man Swar	Polden Chhepang Gurung	Agam Prasad Bantawa Rai
Chhadtara Kumari	Maya Prasad Sharma	Narayan Prasad Marayashaini	Ram Chandra Rai
Sita Pokharel	Khim Kumar BK	Padma Kumari Aryal	Ram Lakhan Chamar
Suresh Chandra Dash	Jeevan Kumar Buda	Tilak Bahadur Mahat	Nain Kala Ojha
Bodh Maya Yadav	Thagendra Prasad Puri	Prem Prasad Tulachan	Narapati Luwar
Matrika Prasad Yadav	Nanda Sharma Chapai	Khag Raj Adhikari	Deepa Gurung
Barshaman Pun	Mahesh Kumar Mahara	Bidhya Bhattarai	Tulasha Kumari Dahal
Ghanashyam Bhushal	Radheshyam Paswan	Gagat Bahadur Sunar	Gopal Bhattarai
Yogesh Prasad Bhattarai	Sher Bahadur Kunwar	Kedar Sigdel	Chakra Prasad Snehi
Rameshwore Raya Yadav	Hari Ram Chaudhary	Basanta Kumar Nembang	Komal Oli
Shakti Bahadur Basnet	Udaya Sharma Poudel	Lal Prasad Sawa (LP)	Suman Raj Pyakurel
Dharmashila Chapagain	Ram Narayan Bidari	Rajendra Gautam	Bimala Ghimire
Indu Kumari Sharma	Bina Pokharel	Rajendra Rai	Bhairav Sundar Shrestha
Haribol Gajurel	Shanti Kumari Adhikari	Ghanashyam Khatiwada	Devendra Dahal
Hit Bahadur Tamang	Sarada Devi Bhatta	Aasha Kumari Bhatta	Khim Lal Bhattarai
Pampha Bhushal	Singha Bahadur Bishwakarma	Juli Kumari Mahato	Ram Bahadur Thapa
Sashi Shrestha	Sashi Kala Dahal	Rekha Kumari
Shyam Kumar Shrestha		Gaurishankar Chaudhary
Anjana Bishankhe		Sher Bahadur Tamang
Ganga Bahadur Tamang		Prem Bahadur Ale
Yashoda Devi Gurung		Narad Muni Rana
Hari Raj Adhikari		ganesh Singh Thagunna
Amrita Thapa		Damodhar Bhandari
Chuda Mani Khadka		Nar Bahadur Thami
Durga Kumari BK		Yagya Bogati
Kamala Rokka		Ram Bir Manandhar
Tek Bahadur Basnet		Dhan Bahadur Buda
Satya Pahadi		Bhanubhakta Dhakal
Bina Magar		Bishal Bhattarai
Raj Bahadur Buda Chhetri		Lila Nath Shrestha
Parbati Kumari Bishunkhe		Raghubir Masheth
Durga Bahadur Raut		Parvat Gurung
Dhurba Kumar Shai		Bhmi Prasad Tripathi
Janardhan Sharma		Top Bahadur Rayamajhi
Jayapuri Gharti		Lekh Raj Bhatta
Rekha Sharma		Prabhu Shah
Purna Kumari Subedi		Khem Prasad Lohani
Onshari Gharti		Krishna Bahadur Rai
Shanta Kumar Tharu		Krishna Kumar shrestha
Maheshwore Gahatraj		Krishna Gopal Shrestha
Gajendra Bahadur mahat		Mahesh Basnet
Chakrapani Khanal		Bhupendra Bahadur Thapa
Jeevan Ram Shrestha		Surya Prasad Pathak
Ganesh Kumar Pahadi		Padam Giri
Sarala Yadav		Pradeep Gyawali
Puspa Kumari Karna		Chhabi Lal Bishwakarma
Krishna Lal Maharjan		Dal Bahadur Rana
Narayan Prasad Khatiwada		Brijesh Kumar Gupta
Krishna Bhakta Pokharel		Nanda Lal Rokka Chhetri
Maya Devi Neupane		Hridayesh Tripathi
Birodh Khatiwada		Rabindra Raj Sharma
Ramkumari Jhakri		Nawaraj Raut
Kalyani Kumari Khadka		Lal Bahadur Thapa
Yaga Raj Sunar		Bhairav Bahadur Singh
Samina Husen		Bijaya Subba
Jaya Kumar Rai		Mohan Baniya
Met Mani chaudhari		Moti Lal Dugad
Hira Chandra KC		Tham Maya Thapa
laxmi Kumari Chaudhary		Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe
Bhawani Prasad Khapung		Sujita Shakya
Jhapat Rawal		Bina Shrestha
Nira Devi Jairu		Nabina Lama
Deepak Prakash Bhatta		Shanti Maya Pakharin
Kalina Khatun		Radha Kumari Gyawali
Som Prasad Pandey		Kumari Meche
Bina Devi Budathoki		Bindha Pandey
Bhim Rawal		Goma Devkota
Mukunda Neupane		Niru Dev Pal
Pabitra Niraula		Man Kumari GC
Ganga Devi Satgauwa		Bishnu Sharma
Gokarna Prasad Bistha		Sarita Neupane
Surendra Pandey		Maina Kumari Bhandari
Gopal Bam		Tirtha Gautam
Shiva Kumar Mandal		Shanta Chaudhary
Hem Kumar Rai		Bimala BK
Ram Kumari Chaudhary		Sarita Kumari Giri
Aman Lal Modi		Neutral
Suresh Kuram Rai		House of Representatives	National Assembly
Sudhan kirati		Tulashi Thapa	Bamdev Gautam
Dilkumari		Lal Babu Pandit
		Sanu Shiva (Death)