Chief Minister Lama's government in crisis after 21 out of 37 state Congress MPs signed in favor of the no-confidence motion.
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Bagmati Province Chief Minister Bahadur Singh Lama and Member of Parliament Indra Bahadur Baniyan, who is also the Chairman of the Provincial Working Committee, have reached the verge of disintegration of the provincial government. At a time when the ruling parties, Congress and UML, were dissatisfied with the state budget, Baniyaan filed a motion of no confidence on Friday to remove Lama as the leader of the parliamentary party.
After the equation between Congress and UML Lama took over the leadership of the government in Bagmati province. There is dissatisfaction among the ruling parties towards the state government for irregularities in the budget. On this occasion, Baniyan plans to remove Lama from the leadership of the party and become the Chief Minister. For that purpose, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and an official of the Congress said that talks are being held with the UML through Deuba.
Constitutionally, it is not mandatory to be the leader of the party parliamentary party to take the leadership of the united government. However, the Congress has been following the practice of making the leader of the parliamentary party at the center as the prime minister and the leader of the provincial parliamentary party as the chief minister in the state. A leader close to him said that party chairman Deuba is also discussing with UML to make Banian the chief minister in favor of Lama's removal from the leadership of the party. Both Lama and Baniyan belong to the Deuba side. Both of them are from construction business background.
Congress General Minister Bishwa Prakash Sharma said that the Center will not interfere in whether to remove the party leader in the state or appoint someone else. He said that it has been decided that the Center will send only a representative for facilitation and MP Rajan KC will be sent for that. The parliamentary party of the province itself is independent. The Center will not interfere in any way," he said.
A few days ago, the Provincial Working Committee drew the attention of Chairman Deuba regarding the unsustainability of the budget, while MP Banian, who is also the Chairman of the Provincial Working Committee, had also been demanding Lama's resignation as per the pre-understanding. After that, Deuba asked Lama to resign as per the agreement. However, after he refused, a motion of no confidence was filed to remove Lama from the leadership of the party under the leadership of Baniyan.
Baniyan has shown the reasons why the government has failed to operate when the no-confidence motion was filed, even the opposition role before leading the government was not effective and the agreement to rotate the chief minister for one year was not followed. When the motion of no confidence was registered, there were 21 signatures, including MPs from the establishment party and Chief Minister Gagan Thapa.
Shekhar Koirala from the other side of the establishment is neutral in this matter. Even the Baniyan, who will replace Lama, are from the establishment party, so Koirala has not entered into the politics of changing the Bagmati government. Congress has 37 MPs in Bagmati. Earlier, in the election of the party leader held on 13 December 2079, Lama defeated Baniyan by 5 votes. At that time, after Speaker Deuba put Lama forward, MPs from the Shekhar-Gagan group stood in favor of Baniyan.
Now Baniya is going to be supported by Deuba. Even though Deuba supports Baniyan, Lama has been saying that he will not resign. He also claimed that the propaganda made that there was an agreement between Baniyan and himself to take the Chief Minister for one year was also a lie. If there was such a consensus, there would not have been an election for the leader of the parliamentary party. If I agree, let's not hold an election, let's divide the leader of the parliamentary party by half. He (Indra Baniyan) did not accept the election," Lama said. "Why should I resign after being elected? The motion of no confidence came not to the Chief Minister, but to the party leader. I will not resign.'
On 30 June 2081, with the formation of a new government in the union of Congress and UML, a two-party coalition government was also formed in the province except Madhesh. With Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli handing over power to Congress President Deuba, there is an agreement that the leadership will change in the province as well. However, in the case of Bagmati, the Baniyas have entered the field to remove the Lama within a year. It is suspected that this will sow seeds of further instability in the state government.
"If I am removed here, it will spread to other provinces as well, the provincial government will become unstable," Lama said, "In the budget, the parliamentarians have received as much budget as they have asked for." The direct got a minimum of Rs 5 crore to Rs 8 crore while the proportional MP got up to Rs 3 crore. There is no dissatisfaction with it.'
Four Congress ministers resigned on Friday as the power struggle continued between Chief Minister Lama, who is close to party president Deuba, and Bagmati Province President Baniyan. To increase pressure on Lama, Minister of Internal Affairs and Law Suraj Chandra Lamichhane, Minister of Youth and Sports Meenkrishna Maharjan, Minister of Culture and Tourism Bimal Thakuri and Minister of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Madukumar Shrestha have submitted their resignations. Instead of accepting the resignation, Chief Minister Lama dismissed them.
Chief Minister Lama says that he will face a motion of no confidence in his parliamentary party leader post by appointing a member of parliament from the Banyan side as a minister in the vacant ministry. After the 2079 state assembly election, Lama got 21 votes when he defeated Baniyam, the leader of the parliamentary party. At that time, Baniyan had 16 votes. Now, the motion of no confidence in the parliamentary party has been registered with the signatures of 21 MPs. Congress has 37 seats in Bagmati province.
