Nepal, which has had 11 different governments since its inception as a republic in 2008, has joined the bandwagon of becoming the third nation in the subcontinent facing political and economic turmoil.
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The spark of the turmoil started when former Nepali Maoist leader P.K Dahal aka Prachandas party decided to support the Nepali congress candidate for the post of President of Nepal, as a result of which the CPN (UML); i.e, the Communist Party of Nepal ( Unified Marxist Leninist) headed by K.P Sharma Oli has been left to flounder. Now the communist party is left in splits once again as it is now up to P.K Dahal to seek a vote of confidence in the Parliament.
In November 2022, parliamentary elections were held, but since no party won the majority, a coalition government was formed, which was headed by P.K Dahal. Dahal was previously part of a Maoist group that led a decade-long revolt in Nepal, killing more than seventeen thousand people.
Task Force in Nepal :
Eventually, he abandoned the group to join a United Nations-led peacekeeping task force in Nepal thus eventually joining politics in 2006. In 2008, he became the Prime Minister, though eventually quit over differences with the President.
Nepal has hardly seen any political stability in its fourteen years as a Republic, ever since it discontinued the monarchy in 2008. The latest political turmoil in Nepal was fuelled when he supported the opposition Nepali Congress party’s presidential candidate, Ram Chandra Paudel, thereby fuelling anger within the Unified Marxist Leninist party as he had agreed to support the Presidential candidate of the UML.
Parliament of Nepal :
The parliament of Nepal is called the Federal Parliament of Nepal, which is a bicameral legislature consisting of two houses. Now, members of both houses of Parliament and all the members of the seven provincial assemblies are to cast their votes on March 9, 2023, and elect a president for Nepal.
Bishnu Paudel, who currently holds the portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Finance has pledged that he will withdraw support to the coalition government by resigning along with eight other party ministers of the UML, as Prachanda failed to “honour the consensus”. He may not be the first to take such a step as last week, four ministers of the UML also resigned stating the same reason for Prachanda’s dishonour to the party consensus.
As Mr. Prachanda’s party, i.e., the UML, controls 32 seats in the 275-member parliament, political analysts have said that his party must face a confidence vote within thirty days to retain its majority in the parliament. Though it is presumed that he will retain his majority due to his support from Congress, which is the single largest party in the Nepalese Parliament. He is likely to form another new coalition.
Previously, Nepal faced severe political turmoil in 2021, when the Nepalese President dissolved the parliament twice within six months and called for fresh elections amidst surging covid cases and its inability to battle them.
While this may not be the first time Nepal is seeing extreme political and economic instability, there is still hope among parliamentarians and citizens that a newer resolution with wider consensus can be adopted. Since Mr. Prachanda has worked alongside the Congress party before, there is a possibility that he may be more comfortable working with the Congress party as opposed to the Marxist Leninist party.
However, one cannot be entirely sure that Mr. Prachanda’s decision to join Congress may necessarily be successful as even in the past, the Congress led parliament has failed to live up to the mark.