18 September 2021, Morang
The opposition alliance in Province 1 is making preparations to file a no confidence motion against Chief Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya in the coming week.
Main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) leader Rajiv Koirala, CPN (Maoist Center) leader Indra Bahadur Angbo and CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Rajendra Kumar Rai are in the election fray for the post of Chief Minister.
The leaders of the alliance parties have not reached consensus on who will lead the government even though the alliance had earlier said they would initiate the process for the formation of the government immediately after the EC gave official recognition to the CPN (Unified Socialist).
However, the process did not move forward as expected after differences cropped up among the leaders of the opposition alliance.
Rai, Angbo and Koirala are in the fray for the coveted post of the Chief Minister and have been lobbying with the federal government to turn the tables in their favor.
Earlier, only the NC and Unified Socialist had staked a claim for the post, but recently Maoist Center leader Angbo has also shown interest in the post.
Unified Socialist leader Rai has maintained that his party is optimistic about getting the post.
Opposition alliance has said that it would lodge a no confidence motion against Chief Minister Acharya if that latter did not initiate the process of taking the vote of confidence by September 23.
At least 46 lawmakers are required for Chief Minister Acharya to secure the vote of confidence and the same number is necessary to fail the confidence motion.
In the 92-member Provincial Assembly of Province 1, CPN-UML has 41 members, NC has 21, Maoist Center has 15, Unified Socialist has 10, Janata Samajwadi Party 3 and Federal Democratic National Forum and Rastriya Prajatantra Party have one member each.
