Province 1 Chief Minister, Sherdhan Rai has resigned from his post at noon and Bhim Acharya has been appointed as the new Chief Minister of the province. Acharya was sworn in as the new CM by Province Chief Somnath Adhikari (Pyasi) in early afternoon.
Before his resignation, CM Rai, also the parliamentary party leader of CPN UML Province 1, had proposed Acharya as the new parliamentary party leader of the CPN UML at a meeting held after 11 am at Asiatique Hotel of Biratnagar.
Acharya has already worked as a federal tourism minister during the premiership of Sushil Koirala.
CM Acharya needs to prove his majority within 30 days as article 188(2) of the constitution demands to prove majority within 30 days of appointment if the majority party witness split.
In the 93-member Provincial Assembly, there are only 92 members, currently, CPN UML has 51, Nepali Congress has 21, CPN (Maoist) Center has 15 members respectively. People's Socialist Party, RPP, and Limbuwan each have 3, 1, and 1 respectively. CPN (Maoist) Center had expelled its former parliamentary party leader Tanka Angbohang after he defected to CPN UML bringing down Provincial Assembly members to 92 only.
Sherdhan Rai was appointed as Chief Minister on 14 February 2018. He had defeated Bhim Acharya by 26 votes against Acharya's 24 in the parliamentary party leader election within CPN UML, the party with an absolute majority on 9 February 2018. One vote was disqualified.
As of now, three members of the Provincial Assembly have tilted towards Madhab Nepal's new-founded party CPN (Unified Socialist). They are Rajendra Rai from Bhojpur constituency number 1 (1), Ganesh Kumar Kambang of Panchthar constituency number 1(1), and Rajan Rai of Khotang constituency number 1(1).
To form the cabinet required 47 members, this is impossible if more than four members from CPN UML defect for the new party.
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