Bagmati Province Chief Minister Indra Bahadur Baniya has won the vote of confidence in the Bagmati Province Assembly. Chief Minister Baniya secured the vote during Tuesday’s assembly meeting.
Out of the 110 members of the provincial assembly, 92 were present during the vote. Of them, 63 voted in favor of the motion of confidence, while 22 voted against it, according to Speaker Bhuvan Kumar Pathak. He announced that the motion passed with a majority of the total current members, fulfilling the constitutional requirement.
Seven members of the assembly remained neutral during the vote. The parties that voted against the motion were the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.
The Bagmati Provincial Assembly currently comprises 21 members from the Maoist Centre, 13 from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, seven from the CPN (Unified Socialist), two from the Hamro Nepali Party, and three from the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party. The latter stayed neutral during the voting.
Baniya was appointed Chief Minister on July 4 (20th of Shrawan) with the support of the CPN-UML. On the same day, he appointed eight ministers, including one without portfolio.
Previously, Bahadur Singh Lama Tamang of the Nepali Congress served as Chief Minister but resigned following internal party pressure after losing to Baniya in the election for the parliamentary party leader. Lama had initially refused to step down, arguing that the constitution did not require it. However, after an agreement reached in the presence of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Lama agreed to resign.
Lama had been appointed Chief Minister on July 24 last year after the formation of a new power-sharing alliance between the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML.
