Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has reached the Shital Niwas with signatures of 149 House of Representatives (HoR) members to stake claim for new government Thursday afternoon.
NC President Deuba, CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, and JSP Chairmen Upendra Yadav and Baburam Bhattarai held discussion at the NC parliamentary party office in the Singha Durbar before leaving for the Shital Niwas.
The signatories include 26 lawmakers from the Khanal-Nepal faction of UML, 12 of the Yadav-Bhattarai faction of JSP and one from Rashtriya Janamorcha..
The current strength of HoR is 271 after Maoist Center expelled four lawmakers who joined CPN-UML after the Supreme Court (SC) invalidated unification of UML and Maoist Center on March 7.
UML currently has 121 lawmakers including those of the Khanal-Nepal faction, NC 63 (but two are suspended), Maoist Center has 49 (including Speaker), JSP 34 (including two suspended) and three lawmakers are independent.
The parties will have to muster support of 136 lawmakers for majority.
Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli reached the Shital Niwas before Deuba.
Sources claim that Oli is there to stake claim for formation of the new government before the coalition of opposition parties.
A lawmaker of the Thakur-Mahato faction of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) told Setopati that the faction had submitted signatures of its lawmakers to Oli Thursday night itself.
