Lumbini Chief Minister Kul Prasad KC won a vote of confidence on Monday.

KC of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) replaced Shankar Pokhrel of the CPN-UML as chief minister on August 12.

“Of the 43 votes cast, 42 were for Chief Minister KC. There were no votes against the confidence motion,” Purna Bahadur Gharti, Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, announced.

Deputy Speaker Krishni Tharu stayed neutral.

Though Lumbini Provincial Assembly is 87-member strong, its current strength is 80. KC needed 41 votes to prove his majority.

UML members Driga Narayan Pandey and Amar Dangi have resigned from the party. Pandey was elected National Assembly member while Dangi is currently political adviser to Chief Minister KC. Maoist Centre’s assembly members Dadhiram Neupane and Dinesh Panthi were stripped of their assembly membership after they joined the UML. Janata Samajbadi Party’s Santosh Pandey, Bijay Yadav and Kalpana Pandey too lost their membership after they defied party’s decisions.

The UML currently has 37 seats in the assembly. The Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre have 19 seats each. The Janata Samajbadi Party has 3 seats and Rastriya Janamorcha 1. There is one independent member in the assembly.

Pokhrel was appointed chief minister with the support of the Maoist Centre, which in May 2018 merged with the UML to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

The Nepal Communist Party (NCP), however, was invalidated by the Supreme Court on March 7. As a result of the court’s order, the UML and the Maoist Centre were revived.

The Maoist Centre has currently formed an alliance with the Nepali Congress, which is leading the government in Kathmandu.

Pokhrel was removed as chief minister on August 12, a little over a month after the Congress-Maoist Centre alliance formed a government in Kathmandu, replacing KP Oli.

The removal of Pokhrel as chief minister followed the ouster of Prithvi Subba Gurung as chief minister of Gandaki. Both are considered close confidantes of Oli.