Chief Minister (CM) of Gandaki province Surendra Raj Pandey has resigned from his post.
CM Pandey submitted his resignation to Gandaki Province Chief Dilli Raj Bhatta on Wednesday.
The chief minister’s press coordinator Narahari Sapkota told Setopati that CM Pandey resigned on Wednesday morning.
He had called a meeting of the council of ministers before resigning.
The Pandey-led government had fallen into minority after CPN (Maoist Center) withdrew its support to the government.
Thirty-one lawmakers are required to secure a majority in Gandaki. CM Pandey was required to take a vote of confidence by Thursday. But he resigned from the post after it appeared unlikely for him to secure a majority.
CM Pandey is the parliamentary party leader of Nepali Congress in Gandaki. NC is the largest party in Gandaki with 27 lawmakers.
CPN-UML has 22 seats, Maoist Center has eight including the speaker, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) two and CPN (Unified Socialist) one.
NC is of the view that the coalition of UML and Maoist Center won’t be able to secure a majority for government formation as RPP has said that it is not involved in power-centric politics at present.
Pandey is preparing to again stake claim for the post of chief minister as the leader of the largest party if the new coalition fails to form a government.
Pandey was appointed CM according to Article 168 (2) of the Constitution on April 27 last year. Lawmakers from NC, Maoist Center and independent lawmaker Rajeev Gurung had supported him then.
