Lumbini Chief Minister Chet Narayan Acharya secured a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly on Tuesday.

The motion seeking the trust vote by the chief minister received a two-thirds majority in the 87-member assembly.

While 70 lawmakers voted in favour of the motion, 11 voted against, Speaker Tularam Gharti Magar announced after voting in the floor test.

In the 87-member assembly, one should secure the support of at least 44 lawmakers to prove the majority.

He became chief minister with support from his own party CPN-UML and the major coalition partner Nepali Congress on July 22.

Acharya had submitted the claim for the post of chief minister with the support of 29 UML lawmakers and 27 Congress lawmakers.

Out of 11 political parties represented in the provincial assembly, seven stood in his favour. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party remained neutral while the lawmakers from Maoist Centre, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Rastriya Janamorcha voted against the chief minister.

Nine lawmakers from the Maoist Centre and one each from Unified Socialist and Janamorcha voted against him.

As per the constitutional provision, a chief minister appointed under Article 168(2) with support from two or more parties represented in the assembly needs to secure a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly no later than 30 days of the appointment.

Maoist Centre's Tularam Ghartimagar is the speaker of the province.

When then Chief Minister Jokh Bahadur Mahara of the CPN (Maoist Centre) resigned on July 21, it was widely assumed that UML’s Leela Giri would be the next chief minister.

The assumption was quite natural given that he was the provincial assembly leader of the UML and took on the chief minister’s role around two months earlier this year.

But there were dramatic changes in the Lumbini politics as UML chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli instructed the provincial UML leaders to promote Acharya to the chief ministerial post.

Acharya is close to the party’s general secretary Shankar Pokharel.