In neighboring country Nepal, Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda will seek trust vote in the Nepali Parliament on May 20. This is the fourth consecutive trust vote in his 18-month tenure. He faced a trust vote days before his coalition partner withdrew support from his government. Prachanda is associated with Nepal Communist Party. His party is the third largest party in the House of Representatives. The decision to seek a trust vote came after Upendra Yadav-led Samajwadi Party Nepal withdrew its support to the government following a split in the party on May 13.
Yadav resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and his party was out of the government. According to Dashrath Dhamala, Assistant Speaker of the House of Representatives, “The Prime Minister is seeking a vote of confidence as per Article 100 Clause 2 of the Constitution of Nepal.” Dhamala said that the Prime Minister's Office and the Council of Ministers have already sent a letter informing the Parliament Secretariat about this matter. If the party the Prime Minister represents splits or a member of the coalition government withdraws support, the Prime Minister must receive a vote of confidence within 30 days.
Prachanda becomes Prime Minister in 2022
Prachanda assumes charge on December 25, 2022, following which this will be his fourth trust vote in one and a half years. The new government needs at least 138 votes in the 275-member House to win the trust vote. Earlier on March 13, Prime Minister Dahal had won the trust vote for the third consecutive time. Last year, Prachanda faced a floor test when the CPN-UML led by former prime minister KP Sharma Oli withdrew support to the Prachanda-led government.
Currently the ruling coalition has a majority and CPN-UML is the largest with 77 seats, Maoist Center 32, Rashtriya Swatantra Party 21, newly formed Janata Samajwadi Party seven and CPN-Unified Socialist (CPN-US) 10 seats.