UML had publicly announced that it would make Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Lokendra Bahadur Chand the Prime Minister to topple the Congress-led government. UML had already moved a no-confidence motion twice in the 16 months since the government was formed under the leadership of Sher Bahadur Deuba with the support of the RPP. The second no-confidence motion in 2053 Poush was rejected, but the number of MPs in favor of the Prime Minister did not reach 103. Therefore, UML was raising the voice that Prime Minister Deuba should seek a vote of confidence from the Parliament. To address that voice, Deuba had proposed to seek a vote of confidence. At Deuba's request, Speaker Ram Chandra Poudel called a vote in Parliament on 23 Falgun 2053.

However, Deuba did not get the required number of votes in that vote. Two MPs from his own party, Congress, were absent, not from other opposition parties. 101 votes were cast in Deuba's favor. 92 votes were cast in favor of the opposition. 103 votes were needed to gain the confidence of the parliament. At that time, the number of members of the House of Representatives was 205. When Deuba took the vote of confidence, two Congress MPs, Deepak Jung Shah and Chakra Bahadur Shahi, were not present in the house. Nepal Sadbhavana Party President and Minister for Supplies Gajendra Narayan Singh did not vote.

Singh, who was sitting on the ruling party chair, had stood up and said that he would not participate in the vote. He had also announced that his support for the government had been withdrawn. When Singh did not vote and two Congress MPs were absent, the Speaker repeatedly urged the MPs to vote in the meeting, asking if anyone was missing. When Speaker Poudel learned that the MPs and Singh were not voting, Singh continued to sit on the chair. Five MPs from the Chand party, who were in the government, did not vote. Sadbhavana's Hridayesh Tripathi also did not vote.

Finally, after 18 months in office, Sher Bahadur Deuba was forced to resign from the post of Prime Minister.  On the day of the vote, it was discovered that two Congress MPs, Shah and Shahi, were missing at around 2 pm.  After the MPs disappeared, the parliament session was started an hour later than scheduled. 

Accusations against Deuba of being a Tulsi Giri

In the parliament session, the main opposition party, UML, had said that Prime Minister Deuba was the second Tulsi Giri.  UML had linked Deuba to Giri, saying that he was trying to destroy democracy.  Before the vote, UML Chairman and leader of the main opposition party, Manmohan Adhikari, had said that the Deuba government should be dismissed at any cost.  He had said, ‘You cannot have a government that harms the nation.  The government is expensive.  It always talks about money.  There is no money for the development of the country and social work.'

Prime Minister Deuba, however, argued that he could not be compared to Tulsi Giri, opposing the UML's view. He had said that it was wrong to heap criticism on someone who did not interfere in the educational and administrative sectors by saying that he had come to fight for democracy. 'Tulsi Giri is a person who became the Prime Minister himself by eliminating the Prime Minister of his own party (BP Koirala) and bringing in another system,' he had said. 'I am a person who put his life in the palm of his hand for democracy.'

In the discussion on the motion to take a vote of confidence put forward by Deuba before the vote, RPP Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa said that the parties were trapped in a cycle and that they were starting to behave against the parliamentary system. 'Parties have abandoned values ​​and norms and started embracing hypocrisy, arrogance and demonic tendencies,' he had said. 'Big parties are trying to split small parties.' "Don't throw stones at others' palaces while sitting in a glass house." He had made this statement targeting UML. He claimed that UML was trying to divide his party by showing leader Chand the Prime Minister's greed. He had said that the trust and no-confidence motions did not allow the government to work. Where were the two Congress MPs hiding? 25 disgruntled Congress MPs left the residence of MP Deepak Jung Shah on February 22, 2006 after a forest feast in Nagarjuna. On that day, they had also agreed to stay in the same hotel. But due to previous incidents, they were criticized for staying in the same hotel and enjoying the beauty of Surasundari. Therefore, it was agreed to go to their respective homes, saying that it would be an insult if they stayed in the hotel for the second time. That is, they had agreed to meet at the Congress parliamentary party office at 9 am on the day of the vote of confidence in parliament and left Shah's house.

In the morning, all the other MPs came, but Shahi from Humla and Shah from Jajarkot did not come. The Congress MPs who had gathered at the parliamentary party office had gone to Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka and discussed the Maoist activities. Even then, two MPs were absent. The parliament meeting had started at 12 noon. But the two MPs were absent. The motion to take the vote of confidence put forward by Deuba in parliament was being discussed. Information spread that two Congress MPs were missing. Minister's vehicles were deployed in the capital to search for them. The vehicles returned after patrolling the possible locations but the MPs were not found.

The Central Region DJG Krishna Mohan Shrestha mobilized police to search for the MPs. Police were mobilized from Thankot checkpoint to the airport. Voting began in parliament but they were not found. While Prime Minister Deuba was answering in Parliament, it was clear from his tone, stance and strict style that the MPs were not found. Some even suspected that the MPs were in the UML parliamentary party office. But it was not confirmed. Ultimately, Deuba toppled the government due to the absence of his own party MPs.

This is how the two MPs were secretive.

Shah left his Bhainsepati house at 7:30 am. From there, he reached the Sports Council in Tripureshwor and met a person named Madhav Khadka. Shahi left his house at 8 am. Both of them reached the house of the then RPP General Secretary Rabindranath Sharma in Baneshwor at the same time. Police sources had informed that from there, MP Shah and Shahi went to the house of RPP leader Chand.

While the voting was going on in the parliament, they were sitting at Chand's house listening to the news of the collapse of the Deuba government. Minister of State for Home Affairs Deepak Prakash Baskota confirmed that they were staying at Chand's house. According to sister Nanda, her brother MP Shahi had left to eat rice at his house. But he did not return home until late at night.

Shahi, who is also a member of the National Panchayat, was considered close to Chand. It was speculated that both of them were absent because of their good personal relations with Chand. Some speculated that they had promised to make him a minister in the government formed after the Deuba government collapsed and had also received financial benefits. Congress MP Jayaprakash Anand had reacted that Shahi and Shah had betrayed the party and were involved in a game of transactions. Although Jajarkot MP Shah was a Deuba ally, Congress MPs had speculated that Chand was close. Sources had claimed that both of them had become close to Chand since the no-confidence motion was played in the parliament.

Chand was not contacted when asked for a response on the issue of hiding MPs. General Secretary Sharma had responded by saying, "They should keep the MPs in Bangkok, why shouldn't we keep them at home?" During the voting in Poush, the Deuba government was protected by sending MPs to Bangkok in the name of treatment. Sharma had given this response in the same context.

Two factions in UML

After the collapse of the Deuba government, discussions had started between the two factions within the UML on who would lead the government. Chairman Manmohan Adhikari and General Secretary Nepal had put forward the idea of ​​joining hands with the Congress as much as possible. Bamdev Gautam, who has been involved in the game of power change for a long time, had maintained that the rival force should not be the Congress, but the weaker force, the RPP.

Manmohan had said that forming a government with the RPP was a 'chapter closed'. Gautam, however, was adamant that the UML should join the government by making RPP leader Chand the Prime Minister. A faction of the UML, including Chairman Manmohan, had proposed forming a UML-led government with the support of the Congress if it could not form a minority government. Gautam, however, had said that joining the weak opposition RPP would be in line with Marxism. The internal strife within the UML was resolved by making Gautam's proposal to remove General Secretary Nepal as a condition for coming to power ineffective. Therefore, General Secretary Nepal could not be very strict on the proposal put forward by Gautam.

Focusing on the fact that MPs themselves introduced distortions into the parliamentary system and that the Deuba-led government was toppled by the absence of MPs from their own party within 18 months of the government being formed, journalists Narayan Wagle, Gunaraj Luintel and Hari Bahadur Thapa prepared three news stories from different angles under different headlines on the same day on Falgun 24, 2053. Three news stories were published on the same day under the headlines ‘Motion of confidence failed due to Congress MPs: 101 votes in favor of the government and 92 votes against’, ‘Two MPs to topple the government at Chand’s house’ and ‘UML active for a new power equation’.

Thus, the campaign by UML to topple the government by putting RPP ahead was completed using Congress MPs. During the government's tenure, MPs were bought and sold, MPs were sent to Bangkok on the pretext of illness, MPs were kidnapped, Sarasundari was locked up in a hotel, a jumbo cabinet was formed, a law was introduced allowing MPs to buy vehicles at customs duty free, and the Prime Minister remained silent about corruption and irregularities involving ministers and MPs. The government was toppled by MPs from his own party in absentia.