Ruling coalition in majority to form government in Bagmati

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT, Hetauda, Dec. 9: The parties in the ruling coalition have a clear majority to form the new government in Bagmati province, according to the results of the Provincial Assembly member elections held on November 20.

Based on the number of provincial assembly members won by the parties in the ruling coalition, it will be easier for them to from the government.

In the Bagmati province that has 110 provincial assembly members, 56 provincial assembly members are required to from the government.

According to the results of the provincial assembly elections, no single party secured majority seats enough to form a government in the province. Thus, two or more parties have to form a coalition to form the new government.

If two of the ruling parties—Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre—stand together, they will be able to form the new government in Bagmati as the two parties have secured 58 seats in total, with NC winning 37 seats and the Maoist Centre 21.

With the addition of seven members of the CPN (Unified Socialist), another party of the present ruling coalition, they will have 65 provincial assembly members.Even if the Nepali Congress and UML forge an alliance, they will have  64 provincial assembly members, which will be enough to form the government.

Among the 110 provincial assembly members,  66 are elected under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category and 44 under proportional representation (PR) category.

Out of 66 provincial assembly constituencies in 13 districts of the province, Nepali Congress, which was ranked third in 2017 elections,  has become the largest party by winning 25 seats under the FPTP category.

The CPN (Maoist Centre) won 14 seats, UML 13, Rastriya Prajatantra Party seven, CPN (Unified Socialist) five, Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party and Hamro Nepali Party won one provincial assembly member each under the FPTP electoral system.

According to the Election Commission, as per the results of the votes received by the parties in PR category,  UML got the highest number of seats at 14, the Nepali Congress won 12, the Maoist Centre seven, RPP six and Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party and CPN (Unified Socialist) won two seats each. Similarly, Hamro Nepali Party got one seat.

In the elections of 2017, UML alone had a single majority winning 58 seats for the formation of the government while the Maoist Centre, that had forged alliance with the UML,  had won 23 and Nepali Congress 21 seats.

The Bibeksheel Sajha Party had won three seats, Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party two and  Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Democratic) and Naya Shakti Party had won one seat each in the Provincial Assembly.

Nepali Congress had won the by-election after the demise of a provincial assembly member elected from the UML in Bhaktapur. Thereafter, the  UML had 57 provincial assembly members and Nepali Congress 22 in Bagmati.