The assembly meeting of Province 2 on Monday endorsed the proposal to name the province Madhes by a two-thirds majority. The assembly also designated Janakpurdham as its provincial capital.

The separate proposals for the name and capital were presented in the assembly meeting for voting. Both the proposals were endorsed by a two-thirds majority as stipulated in the country’s constitution.

Of the total 99 provincial members attending the meeting, 80 members voted in favour of naming the province Madhes while 34 votes were cast against it. Similarly, 78 votes were cast in favour of Janakpurdham as the provincial headquarters.

Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal (JSPN), Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal (LSPN) and CPN (Maoist Centre) jointly registered the proposal to name the province Madhes at the provincial assembly. CPN-UML and CPN (Unified Socialist) proposed to name the province Janaki and make Janakpur its capital while Nepali Congress had proposed to name the province as Mithila-Bhojpura and designate Janakpurdham as

its capital. The provincial assembly members representing Bara and Parsa districts were in favour of Madhes as the name of the province but proposed to designate Birgunj as the provincial capital.

The 107-member provincial assembly currently has 104 members, including Speaker Saroj Yadav. Ninety-nine members were present in the assembly meeting on Monday. The JSPN and LSPN have 37 and 16 members respectively in the provincial assembly while the Maoist Centre has eight members. But a total of 80 votes were cast in favour of Madhes Province proposed jointly by these three parties.

A highly placed source claimed that some members of the Congress and CPN (Unified Socialist) crossed the floor and voted in favour of Madhes Province.

“Around 89 Congress provincial assembly members and two CPN (Unified Socialist) members favoured our proposal to name the province Madhes. The political parties who were in favour of the proposal did not have a two-thirds majority,” said a LSPN provincial assembly member preferring anonymity.

Upendra Prasad Kushawaha, whip of the Nepali Congress in the provincial assembly, admitted that some Congress members crossed the floor.

“Though I stood firm on the party’s agenda as the whip, some Congress members crossed the floor,” he added.

The province spanning eight districts is the smallest in area with the highest population density. It got its name nearly four years after the provincial assembly election. Of the seven provinces in the country, only Province 1 remains to be named.