Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has staked claim for new government with President Bidya Devi Bhandari claiming that he has support of 153 House of Representatives (HoR) members.
Oli, who reached the Shital Niwas before the coalition of opposition parties reached there, claimed that he has support of 121 CPN-UML lawmakers and 32 of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).
Baluwatar sources confided that he has staked the claim in capacity of UML parliamentary party leader, and submitted signature of JSP parliamentary party leader Rajendra Mahato on behalf of 32 JSP lawmakers.
Mahato was unilaterally elected parliamentary party leader by the Thakur-Mahato faction a few days back.
Oli has left the Shital Niwas after staking his claim.
Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has also reached the Shital Niwas with signatures of 149 House of Representatives (HoR) members to stake claim for new government.
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 and 12 of the Yadav-Bhattarai faction of JSP.
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.
