Koshi Province Provincial Assembly Speaker Baburam Gautam resigned from his post on Tuesday. Gautam resignation comes as the alliance of parties including Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) is preparing to form a government in the province. Gautam’s resignation ensures that the alliance will have a majority to stake claim for government formation.

Provincial Assembly Secretary Gopal Prasad Parajuli said that the resignation of Speaker Gautam, addressed to the Deputy Speaker Shrijan Danuwar, has been registered in the Provincial Assembly Secretariat.

Gautam said that he resigned to resolve the province’s tricky situation regarding the government formation upon the advice and request of Prime Minister and Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Following Gautam’s resignation Congress provincial assembly party leader Uddhav Thapa, with the support of alliance parties’ lawmakers, has started preparations to present his claim for the post of chief minister to the province head Parshuram Khapung.

The Supreme Court, on Thursday, had removed Congress leader Thapa from chief minister. It mandated the province head to appoint a chief minister of a coalition government within seven days. Province Head Khapung, accordingly, asked the political parties to stake claim to government by 5pm on Tuesday.

The parliamentary strength of the political parties makes government formation in Koshi knotty. Both the Congress-led alliance (which includes the Maoist Centre, the Unified Socialist and the Janata Samajbadi) and the UML-RPP alliance have 46 lawmakers each.

With Gautam’s resignation, the deputy Speaker, who is from the UML, also may resign so that he/she could participate in the vote in order to prevent the Congress-led alliance from forming a government. After that, the oldest lawmaker, who is from the Nepali Congress, will chair the provincial assembly meeting.