Nepal’s opposition alliance has collected signatures of as many as 149 lawmakers to stake claim to a new government.

Leaders said they are going to Sheetal Niwas to request the President to appoint Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba a new prime minister.

“We have secured the support of 149 lawmakers to form a new government and our party president Sher Bahadur Deuba has reached the President Office to stake claim to the new government,” Nepali Congress lawmaker Gagan Thapa told the Post.

Deuba is backed by his own party, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center), the Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of the CPN-UML and Upendra Yadav faction of the Janata Samajbadi Party.

The Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre, which have 61 and 49 members respectively, have the backing of 26 lawmakers from the Madhav Nepal-Jhala Nath Khanal faction of the CPN-UML and around 13 lawmakers of the Upendra Yadav-Baburam Bhattarai faction of the Janata Samajbadi Party.

In the 271-strong House of Representatives, a party willing to form a government must secure 136 votes.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has given till 5pm Friday to parties to form a new government as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal.

The President's call followed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s request to that effect, a move experts on constitutional affairs have dubbed unconstitutional for skipping the due provisions of the constitution.

Earlier last week also opposition parties had an opportunity to stake claim to the government after Oli failed his confidence vote in Parliament on May 10.

However, after the opposition alliance could not prove a majority, Oli was reappointed on May 13 as per Article 76 (3) as the leader of the party with the highest number of members in the House.

Oli needed to secure the vote of confidence within 30 days from his appointment.

He, however, on Thursday prodded the President into invoking Article 76 (5).

Constitutional experts say for the invocation of Article 76 (5), the prime minister either needs to fail his confidence vote or resign.

Oli failed his May 10 confidence vote after as many as 28 lawmakers from the Nepal-Khanal faction of his party abstained from voting and the Mahantha Thakur-Rajendra Mahato faction of the Janata Samajbadi Party stayed neutral.

Oli had garnered 93 votes–way short of the required number of 136.

“We have already reached Sheetal Niwas and registration process is going on,” said Barshaman Pun, a Standing Committee member of the Maoist Centre. “We have signatures of 149 lawmakers to show that we have the majority to form a new government.”