On Thursday, the House of Representatives and the National Assembly were supposed to hold deliberations on the six ordinances introduced by the KP Shamra Oli government when Parliament was not in session.

Until Wednesday evening, lawmakers from ruling partners Nepali Congress and CPN-UML were confident about the ordinances being endorsed by the federal parliament on Thursday.

Both the lower and upper houses in their business advisory had initially included ordinances in Thursday’s meeting agenda. But, at the eleventh hour, the topic was removed from the agenda at the government’s request.

Although the ruling parties have a strong majority in the House of Representatives to pass any bill, they lack it in the National Assembly.

Thus the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (JSP-Nepal)’s support is essential for an upper house majority in favour of the ruling coalition. The ruling parties have been trying to convince the JSP-Nepal, as the Madhesh-based party gave its vote of trust to Oli during the floor test in July last year and it sits on the ruling side in Parliament. The ruling coalition, which is one vote short of a simple majority required to pass a bill in the upper house, was banking on the party’s support.

The Upendra Yadav-led JSP-Nepal is not in the Oli Cabinet and the party was undecided on whether to stand in favour of the ordinances until Thursday morning. This is why the government cancelled the plan to hold deliberations on the ordinances on the day.

The ruling parties were preparing to discuss and pass the ordinances from both houses on Thursday. Ordinances that fail to clear both houses cannot become law.

It was at the request of Upendra Yadav that the ruling parties withdrew the agenda of holding deliberation on the ordinances, says Shyam Kumar Ghimire, the Congress chief whip.

Rekha Yadav, the chief whip of JSP-Nepal, didn’t deny Ghimire’s claim. The task force, which was assigned to study the ordinances and make suggestions to the party leadership, submitted its report to party chair Yadav on Thursday morning. “As he [Yadav] wanted to go through the report, the party could not decide on the ordinances today,” chief whip Yadav said.

As there was no discussion on the ordinances in the House of Representatives, the scheduled discussion in the National Assembly was also cancelled, says Bhagabati Neupane, UML chief whip in the National Assembly.

“Members of the National Assembly have decided to hold deliberations on ordinances the same day as the House of Representatives,” Neupane added. “The next meeting of the Assembly is on Sunday. Let’s see if there will be a discussion that day.”

Sunita Baral, the UML whip in the lower house, also hinted at the possibility of deliberations on ordinances by Monday. “It will possibly happen on Sunday or Monday,” she said.

The JSP-Nepal, which had formed a task-force to study the content of the ordinances, held meetings with experts on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, party leaders had said the parliamentary party meeting on Thursday morning would take a final call, as per the task force’s recommendation.

However, the task force report, which was to be submitted to party chair Yadav in the morning, was presented to him just before the House session was scheduled to start. Hence the ruling parties were forced to remove the ordinances from the agenda.

JSP-Nepal leaders said they wouldn’t oppose all six ordinances, and each would be evaluated for its merit.

The party has some reservations on the ordinance related to amending the Land Act 1964, the Forest Act 2019 and the National Park Act 1973.

“Our party is positive on all ordinances but the ruling coalition should revise the ordinance related to land, forests and national parks through a replacement bill,” JSP-Nepal chief whip Yadav told the Post. “This ordinance is problematic.”

The JSP-Nepal seemingly has no issues with other ordinances but it also expects the ruling parties to address some of its other demands.

Ghimire, the Congress chief whip, said the JSP-Nepal’s demand is natural as “politics is all about a give and take and one side cannot always be the giver”.

From the time of this government’s formation, the JSP-Nepal has been supporting it, Ghimire said. “Now the ruling parties should also address its calls and create an environment for the ordinances’ passage from the National Assembly.”

JSP-Nepal chief Yadav on Thursday morning met Prime Minister Oli and Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to discuss cooperation.

According to a source privy to the developments, during the meetings with the ruling leaders, Yadav expressed his party’s desire to join the government. Yadav’s party wants either the home or the health portfolio in the federal government, the source said.

Ramesh Lekhak, a close aide to Deuba, currently leads the home ministry while another Congress leader, Pradeep Paudel, is the health minister.

JSP-Nepal chief whip, however, denied the party having made such a demand. “Joining the government is not our priority. We only want to work for an improvement in people’s lives,” he said.

The source also claimed that if the two largest parties can’t give them one of the two ministries, the party wants the chief minister of Madhesh in return for helping the ruling coalition in passing the ordinances.

Yadav’s party, which emerged as the largest political force in Madhesh from the 2008 elections, had been leading the Madhesh provincial government continuously since 2017. But with the formation of the Congress-UML coalition in July last year, the JSP-Nepal lost its leadership of the province to the Janamat Party.

“The JSP-Nepal wants a share in power should it support the ruling coalition in passing the ordinances,” the source told the Post.

Ram Saran Bajagain, press coordinator for the prime minister, also hinted that Oli and Uprendra Yadav had discussed collaboration. “They discussed many options,” Bajgain told the Post.

An executive council member of the JSP-Nepal says that it is obvious for any political party to aspire to become a part of the government when it has already given its vote of trust to the prime minister.

“But we are yet to come to an agreement,” the leader said.