Nepali Congress, the Communsit Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and a faction of the Janata Samajbadi Party led by Upendra Yadav have urged President Bidya Devi Bhandari to invoke Article 76 (2) of the constitution to pave the way for the formation of a new government.

The call comes after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday lost a vote of confidence in the Parliament.

Article 76 (2) says in cases where no party has a clear majority in the House of Representatives, the President shall appoint as the prime minister a member of the House of Representatives who can command majority with the support of two or more parties in the House of Representatives.

Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Maoist Center chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Yadav, one of the chairs of the Janata Samajbai Party, issued a joint statement, urging the President to invoke Article 76(2) on Monday evening, minutes after Oli lost his vote of confidence.

“As per the article 100 (1) of the constitution, the prime minister moved a vote of confidence motion, but lost it,” reads the statement signed by Deuba, Dahal and Yadav. “The prime minister hence has been relieved of his position as per Article 100 (3). So we call upon the President to initiate the process to form a new government under Article 76 (2).”

During Monday’s voting, Oli could garner just 93 votes, way less than 136 that he needed to prove the House confidence on him.

As many as 124 votes were cast against him and 15 lawmakers stated neutral.

In the 271-strong House, only 232 lawmakers were present during Monday’s voting.

About two months after the Supreme Court invalidated the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and revived the UML and the Maoist Centre to their pre-merger stage of May 2018, Oli last week announced that he would go for a floor test as per Article 100 (1) of the constitution.

Oli was elected prime minister in February 2018 with the support of the Maoist Centre as per Article 76 (2). But after the merger between his UML and Dahal’s Maoist Centre, his government had attained the status of a government formed under Article 76 (1), as the united Nepal Communist Party (NCP) commanded a comfortable majority in the House.

Days after Oli decided to go for a floor test, the Maoist Centre withdrew its support to Oli, reducing his government into a minority one.

As they had decided, the Nepali Nepali Congress and Maoist Centre, which control 61 and 49 votes, respectively, voted against Oli’s trust motion.

The Upendra Yadav-led group of the Janata Samajbadi said that it would vote against Oli. The Mahantha Thakur-led faction, however, had said it would stay neutral.

As many as 28 lawmakers from the Madhav Kumar Nepal-Jhala Nath Khanal faction of Oli’s party, CPN-UML, were not present in the House meeting, as they had decided earlier on Monday that they would abstain from voting. Oli’s UML party has 121 lawmakers in the House.