KATHMANDU, July 16: The government has lost its majority in the National Assembly.
With the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) Nepal holding three seats withdrawing its support, the government now finds itself in the minority. While the ruling coalition holds close to a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, it appears weak in the National Assembly.
In the 59-member National Assembly, the government now holds only 28 seats. Among coalition partners, the Nepali Congress (NC) has 16, CPN-UML holds 11, and the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) has 1 seat. This gives the government just 28 seats in total.
JSPN unlikely to withdraw support from ruling coalition
Had JSP Nepal not withdrawn support, the government would have held 31 seats- a clear majority in the 59-member upper house. But with JSP pulling out, the government has clearly fallen into the minority.
On the opposition side, a majority has formed. CPN (Maoist Centre), the largest party in the National Assembly, holds 17 seats, CPN (Unified Socialist) holds 8, JSP Nepal has 3, and Rastriya Janamorcha has 1 seat. Bamdev Gautam, a member nominated by the President, is set to join Unified Socialist. His seat will be counted under that party. However, the ruling coalition is unlikely to gain more than one seat from the President-nominated members, which would only bring their total to 29, which is not a majority.
Due to the numbers game in the National Assembly, the government has failed to reach earlier understandings. Last year, on 1st July, during government formation, NC and UML strongly pushed for a constitutional amendment. But since they lacked a majority in the National Assembly, that agenda remained merely a verbal agreement. Now, with JSP Nepal pulling its support, the government has weakened further.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, referring to the difficulties in the National Assembly, has already extended the timeline for constitutional amendment to 2087 BS. However, the main coalition partner, NC, has opposed this delay and insists the amendment must be done within the current parliamentary term. Yet, not even preliminary work has started. Against this backdrop, JSP Nepal withdrew its support from the government.
