Two CPN (Maoist Centre) ministers in Koshi Province resigned from their posts on Tuesday, following the party’s decision to withdraw its support to Chief Minister Hikmat Kumar Karki.

Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development Durga Prasad Chapagain and Minister for Tourism, Forest and Environment Jeevan Acharya tendered their resignations to the chief minister. Chapagain and Acharya were appointed as the provincial ministers on January 9.

Earlier on Tuesday, the meeting of the Maoist’s parliamentary party decided to pull out of the Koshi government and recall the party’s ministers. With the decision, the provincial government led by CPN-UML leader Karki has fallen into minority.

Article 188 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal states that in case the political party the chief minister represents is divided or a political party in a coalition provincial government withdraws support, the chief minister shall table a resolution in the provincial assembly for a vote of confidence within 30 days.

In the 93-member provincial assembly in Koshi, the UML has 40 seats, the Nepali Congress 29, the Maoist Centre 13 including the speaker, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) 6, the CPN (Unified Socialist) 4, and the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) one seat. The UML-led government has only the support of the RPP.

On May 31, the JSP pulled out of the Koshi government and also withdrew its support to the chief minister. Nirmala Limbu, the party’s sole representative in the provincial assembly, was the health minister in the provincial government.

The Nepali Congress-led central coalition has been mulling ways to form a new government in Koshi based on the power equation in Kathmandu. However, it is not easy to form a new government by a Congress-led coalition in Koshi Province, according to constitutional experts. Both the Congress-led bloc and the UML-RPP alliance have 46 seats each, adding to the difficulty of crafting a ruling coalition. What further complicates the matter is that the UML is the largest party in the province and a Speaker can cast his/her vote only when there are equal votes for and against a motion.

Along with the political uncertainty triggered by the changed power equation, the province is also marked by political unrest. Some ethnic groups have been staging protests, demanding the name of the province be changed based on the identity of the major ethnic communities in the region.

Province 1 was named ‘Koshi’ on March 1. Since then, protests have intensified with hundreds getting injured in clashes, and there is no sign of a let up in protests against the nomenclature. Instead, activists advocating for an identity-based name have intensified their agitation. Kirat Yakthung Chumlung, Kirat Rai Yayokkha and the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities have been coordinating protests organised by the Province 1 Renaming Joint Struggle Committee.