Opposition parties meeting to chart out strategy to counter Oli's House dissolution move
They are considering registering writ petition at the Supreme Court by all 149 lawmakers who had signed to support Sher Bahadur Deuba in his claim to form the government, leaders say. Post File Photo
Following President Bidhya Devi Bhandari’s dissolution of the House of Representatives and announcement of midterm elections on November 12 and 19 Friday midnight on the recommendation of the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the opposition is holding a meeting Saturday afternoon to chart out its strategy.
“We are at the Parliament building at Baneshwor. Leaders are coming. We will discuss our strategy to counter Oli’s move,” said Durga Poudel, lawmaker of Rastriya Janamorcha. “We will also discuss registering a writ petition at the Supreme Court by all 149 lawmakers who had signed yesterday to support Sher Bahadur Deuba the new prime minister.”
Both Deuba and Oli had claimed the support of the majority of lawmakers of the lower house to form a new government under Article 76(5) on Friday afternoon but in a statement late at night on Friday the Office of the President said that both claims were insufficient.
According to the statement, 26 lawmakers of the CPN-UML and 12 lawmakers of the Janata Samajbadi Party had supported both Oli and Deuba.
While Oli had staked his claim with the ‘support’ of 121 lawmakers from his CPN-UML and 32 from the Janata Samajbadi Party, Deuba had staked his claim with the signatures of 61 lawmakers of Nepali Congress, 49 of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), 26 of UML, 12 of Janata Samajbadi and one from Janamorcha Nepal.
Of the 275 members of the House of Representatives four are suspended and 136 is the magic number needed for a majority.
Earlier Saturday morning Nepali Congress office bearers met at President Sher Bahadur Deuba’s residence in Budhanilkantha and decided to take a concrete decision to counter Oli’s move saying that was unconstitutional and undemocratic.
“This is an unconstitutional and undemocratic move. We will counter it politically for which we will discuss with all the opposition parties,” Prakash Sharan Mahat told the reporters following the meeting.
Leaders said that they would move to the Supreme Court with signatures of all 149 lawmakers who had signed to make Deuba the new prime minister of the country replacing Oli.
The opposition meeting will be attended by leaders of Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre, Madhav Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal-led faction of CPN-UML, Upendra Yadav and Baburam Bhattarai-led faction of Janata Samajbadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha, according to Poudel of Rastriya Janamorcha.
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