Climaxing a day of dramatic developments, Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday night dissolved the House of Representatives and announced mid-term elections on November 12 and 19.

A midnight cabinet meeting presided over by caretaker prime minister KP Sharma Oli recommended dissolution of the House after receiving a notice from the President’s office that it could appoint neither Oli nor Sher Bahadur Deuba, Nepali Congress president, as claims made by both to form a new government was insufficient.

In a notice, the Office of the President said Bhandari has dissolved the House of Representatives and declared elections in two phases—on November 12 and November 19—on the recommendation of the council of ministers, Kathmandu Post reported. 

This is the second time the House was dissolved in five months. On December 20 last year, Oli had suddenly dissolved the House and called for snap polls for April 30 and May 10. However, the Supreme Court overturned his decision on February 23, calling it unconstitutional.

But a dramatic verdict by the Supreme Court on March 7, the day the meeting of the restored House was scheduled, revived the CPN-UML and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), invalidating Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which the two parties had formed in May 2018. That led to more political confusion.

Oli tried his best to justify that the House had become irrelevant. He, however, ignored calls from opposition parties to step down.

Oli on Thursday made Sheetal Niwas, the president's official residence, initiate the process for forming a new government  — without resigning or going for the constitutionally mandated floor test after being reappointed the prime minister.

The president complied and gave the parties until Friday 5 pm to stake their claim to a new government.

But in a spectacular display of brinkmanship, Oli himself reached out to the president to demand that he be appointed prime minister again.

Earlier in the day, the Congress-led alliance, backed by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), a section of the Janata Samajbadi Party and the Madhav Nepal-Jhala Nath Khanal faction of the CPN-UM, presented the signatures of 149 lawmakers, requesting President Bhandari to appoint Deuba as new prime minister.

But Oli too presented his claim before the president, saying he had the support of 153 lawmakers and that he be appointed the prime minister.

In a statement late on Friday night, the Office of the President said though Oli had claimed to have the backing of 121 lawmakers from the CPN-UML and 32 from the Janata Samajbadi Party, 26 lawmakers of the UML had signed the letter presented by Deuba to stake claim to the new government.

(SAM)