Koshi Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa is seeking a vote of confidence on Monday. Deputy Speaker Srijana Danuwar has scheduled the discussion on the vote of confidence motion at 1pm.

Deputy Speaker Danuwar is presiding over the provincial assembly as the Speaker is yet to be elected. As such, the ruling coalition of the Nepali Congress and Maoist Centre has 47 lawmakers, which is the required majority to win the confidence of the assembly. In the opposition, the UML has 40 lawmakers (along with the deputy Speaker), while the Rastriya Prajatantra Party holds six seats in the provincial assembly.

As matters stand, if the Deputy Speaker does not resign or remain absent, Chief Minister Thapa will pass the floor test.

Deputy Speaker Danuwar, while talking to the Post on Sunday evening, confirmed that she is ready to chair the provincial assembly meeting on Monday, where Thapa will take a vote of confidence. “The party has not directed me as yet. And I have no intention to resign or remain absent,” Danuwar added.

If she resigns or is absent, a confusion about chairing the assembly will surface and the process will be knotty. In such a case, one member from the four-member presidium based on either the serial number or seniority will chair the provincial assembly. The quad comprises Congress’s Israil Mansuri, Maoist Centre’s Geeta Timsina, RPP’s Ambar Bahadur Bista, and UML’s Malati Kumari Limbu. Absence of members from the opposition parties will further complicate the process, as a lawmaker from the ruling coalition will have to chair the assembly.

Ruling party leaders, however, are confident that the Deputy Speaker will chair the provincial assembly meeting.

Maoist Centre parliamentary party leader in Koshi, Indra Bahadur Angbo, said the Deputy Speaker will chair the session on Monday as she had called for the meeting and scheduled the floor test.

And if she resigns or skips the meeting, Angbo added, “We have until August 30 to hold the vote of confidence. Thus, we have not given much thought to what we will do in unusual circumstances.”

Nepali Congress’ provincial assembly party leader Thapa was appointed as the chief minister of Koshi on August 1 following the resignation of Speaker Baburam Gautam. Gatuam had resigned from the post earlier in the day, ensuring the candidate from the alliance of parties including the Congress and the CPN (Maoist Centre) will have majority votes (47 lawmakers in the 93-strong provincial assembly) to stake claim to form the government.

Signatures of 29 lawmakers from the Congress, 14 from the Maoist Centre, four from the CPN (Unified Socialist) and one from the Janata Samajbadi Party were submitted to the provincial head.

Gayananda Mandal, the senior-most member of the Koshi provincial assembly, has been appointed as a minister of state in a tactical move by the ruling coalition as he would have to otherwise chair the assembly as per the Constitution in the absence of both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. In that case, the alliance could lose a vote.

Chief Minister Thapa, on Sunday evening, sent a letter to the UML and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, seeking their support in the vote of confidence. Opposition leaders say they have no plans of supporting Thapa.

At the time of writing this piece, Ambar Bahadur Bista, a Rastriya Prajatantra Party lawmaker in Koshi, said the party does not have any plans to cast a vote in Thapa’s favour.

The UML has called a meeting of its parliamentary party at 10 am on Monday. The chief whip Rewati Raman Bhandari said: “The chances of us giving a vote of confidence to Thapa are slim.” The chief minister did not create an environment for coordination, which the party had time and again asked for,” Bhandari added.

“We have not thought as yet of resignation by the Deputy Speaker and she does not have any such intention either,” said Bhandari.