The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) has decided to withdraw its support to the KP Sharma Oli government.

Maoist Centre spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said Tuesday’s Standing Committee meeting of the party decided to withdraw the support.

The decision to pull out the support it lent the government back in February 2018 comes two days after Oli decided to seek a vote of confidence in the House.

Oli on Sunday told his Cabinet members that he would go for a floor test on May 10. Accordingly, the President on Sunday evening summoned the House meeting for May 10.

“We will submit a letter to the Parliament Secretariat on Wednesday regarding the party’s decision to withdraw support to the government,” said Shrestha.

Even though the Maoist Centre and the CPN-UML were revived by the Supreme Court on March 7, two weeks after it overturned Oli’s House dissolution decision, the Maoists had not withdrawn their support to the government.

Oli was elected prime minister in February 2018 with the support of the Maoist Centre.

Ever since the two parties were revived, Oli had challenged the Maoist Centre time and again to withdraw its support if it really wanted to unseat him.

The Maoist Centre, however, was in a bid to form a coalition government under the leadership of the Nepali Congress. But for that, they needed the support of the Janata Samjbadi Party, which was already in talks with Oli.

Just as Oli was questioned over not stepping down on moral grounds even after the Supreme Court overturned his decision to dissolve the House, the Maoist Centre too faced criticism for not withdrawing its support, as many said it should have done so as soon as the court invalidated the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and revived the UML and the Maoist party.

According to Dev Gurung, a Standing Committee member of the Maoist Centre, his party was “trying to save the Parliament”, hence had not withdrawn its support to the government.

“We had decided to withdraw our support to the government long ago, but were waiting for the opposition parties [Nepali Congress and Janata Samajbadi] to register a no-confidence motion,” Gurung told the Post. “But with Oli himself now going for a floor test, there is no point in continuing the support. We will inform the Parliament Secretariat about our decision to withdraw support to the government. We will explore options to unseat Oli based on our discussions with the opposition pirates.”