As many as 40 Provincial Assembly members from the Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), Janata Samajbadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha registered a no-confidence motion against Lumbini Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel on Sunday.

This is the second time a no-confidence motion against him has been filed.

Nineteen members of the Nepali Congress, 18 of the Maoist Centre, two of Janata Samajbadi and one of Rastriya Janamorcha have signed the motion.

The parties have proposed Maoist Centre leader Kul Prasad KC as the new chief minister.

The proposal, which also demands a special session of the Provincial Assembly, has been registered according to Article 188(4) of the constitution. As per the Article, one-fourth of the total members of the Provincial Assembly members may table in writing a motion of no-confidence against the chief minister.

The opposition has claimed that the government formed by Chief Minister Pokharel as the largest party of the Assembly as per Article 168(1) of the constitution is not valid.

According to Article 168(1) of the constitution, the provincial chief shall appoint the parliamentary party leader commanding a majority in the Provincial Assembly as the chief minister, and the Provincial Council of Ministers shall be constituted under him or her.

After the resignation of two state assembly members and one member switching parties, the UML only has 38 members in the existing 81-member assembly.

Earlier on April 20, 41 members of the Provincial Assembly had signed a no-confidence motion in the state assembly against Pokharel. Accordingly, the state chief Dharmanath Yadav had called a special session of the assembly on April 4. But before that Chief Minister Pokharel resigned from the post on the same day.

But Pokharel was re-appointed as chief minister as he was the Parliamentary Party leader of the party commanding a majority in the Provincial Assembly.