Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Madhesh Province Chief Minister Krishna Kumar Yadav has passed the floor test.
A total of 62 lawmakers voted in favor of Yadav’s motion of confidence in the meeting of the Madhesh Province Assembly on Friday, while 36 voted against the motion.
A majority of 54 is needed to form a government in the 108-member Madhesh Province Assembly.
Yadav, the parliamentary party leader of Nepali Congress (NC), sought the vote of confidence as per Article 188 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015, after one of the ruling coalition partners, the Janamat Party, withdrew its support to the government.
“If the party represented by the Chief Minister splits or a party participating in the provincial government withdraws its support, the Chief Minister must table a motion of confidence before the provincial assembly within 20 days,” reads Article 188 (2).
Lawmakers from the NC, CPN-UML, Nepali Communist Party (NCP), and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) voted in support of the motion. Yadav received support of 22 members from the NC, 24 from the UML, 15 from the NCP, and one from the RPP.
The Janamat Party, which was part of the Yadav-led government, had withdrawn its support on May 4. The party had two ministers in Yadav’s cabinet.
After the Janamat withdrew its support, Chief Minister Yadav reshuffled the ruling alliance before seeking the vote of confidence. He reconstituted the Cabinet by bringing the UML and NCP into the government while leaving out JSP Nepal. JSP Nepal’s parliamentary party had issued a whip on Thursday directing its lawmakers to vote in favour of the Yadav-led government. But after Yadav changed the coalition, JSP Nepal moved to the opposition bench.
Yadav was appointed Chief Minister of Madhesh Province on December 5. At that time, he had the support of 22 lawmakers from the NC, 18 from the JSP Nepal, 13 from the Janamat Party, nine from the CPN (Maoist Center), eight from the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) Nepal, and seven from the CPN (Unified Socialist). The Maoist Center and the Unified Socialist have now merged to form the NCP.
