Koshi Chief Minister Hikmat Bahadur Karki lost the position after failing to secure the vote of confidence during the floor test in the provincial assembly on Friday.

A meeting of the provincial assembly rejected the vote of confidence motion tabled by the chief minister.

A total of 43 votes were cast against the trust motion while 46 provincial assembly members supported the chief minister, speaker Baburam Gautam announced.

The Karki-led government was rendered into a minority after the CPN (Maoist Centre) withdraw its support to the government on June 6.

Province head Parashuram Khapung on January 8 had appointed Karki as the chief minister of the province as per Article 168 (2) of the constitution after he laid claim to the post with the support of 60 members. He was backed by the CPN (Maoist Centre), the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and the Janata Samajbadi Party apart from his party UML.

A new government formation in the province is trickier due to the hung provincial assembly. Support from 47 members is needed for the formation of a new government.

In the 93-member provincial assembly, the UML has 40 seats, the Congress 29, the Maoist Centre 13 including the Speaker, the RPP 6, the CPN (Unified Socialist) 4, and the Janata Samajbadi Party has one seat.

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.