Dipak Manange ‘kingmaker’ in new govt formation in Gandaki Province

KATHMANDU, June 11:  After Gandaki Chief Minister (CM), Prithvi Subba Gurung failed to win a confidence motion, analysts and general people are busy analyzing whether a new government can be formed as per the Article 168 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal.

Gurung was reappointed as the Chief Minister on May 12  as the leader of the parliamentary party with the largest number of members in the Gandaki Province Assembly. 

As CM Gurung failed to secure the vote of confidence on Thursday [June 10] , the opposition alliance comprising the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and Rastriya Janamorcha (RJM) is working hard to muster the support of the majority of assembly members to form a coalition government.

The process of the new government formation begins once the Governor of the province calls the members of the assembly to stake claim for a new government as per the Article 168 (5). Governor Sita Kumar Poudel is yet to initiate a new government formation process. 

Composition of Gandaki Province Assembly 

The Gandaki Province Assembly has a total of 60 members including the Speaker Netra Nath Adhikari. The largest party --- CPN-UML --- has a total of 27 members. Opposition alliance has a total of 31 members including 15 from the Nepali Congress (NC), 11 of Maoist Center excluding Speaker Adhikari, three from RJM and 2 from JSP.  Krishna Thapa, an RJM member, however, violated the party whip on Thursday and remained neutral. This also means he is less likely to support the opposition alliance while forming a new government. In this case, the alliance will have only 30 votes. 

One should put together the support from at least 31 province assembly members to form a new government. 

See the composition: 

Independent lawmaker Manage decisive in new govt formation 

The province assembly has an independent member--- Rajiv Gurung aka Dipak Manange. Gangster-turned-politician Gurung has emerged as the kingmaker in determining whether the opposition alliance will be able to form a new government. 

The alliance will have a support of 31 members once he stands by its side. He has also announced to extend his support to the alliance to ‘prevent the province assembly from being dissolved’. 

Despite being an incumbent minister in the CM Gurung-led Cabinet, he remained absent during Thursday’s trust vote.