Kathmandu 3 May : Chair of CPN (Maoist Centre), Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, has said his attention has been drawn to the resignation of Lumbini Province Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel from his post and his re-appointment to the post as the leader of a majority party. He has expressed solidarity to efforts being made by 42 assembly members to repeal the appointment.

It may be noted that members from the party and the Nepali Congress had on April 19 registered a no-confidence motion against Pokhrel and demanded a special session of Province Assembly. The special session was scheduled to commence from Sunday. The no-confidence motion was supposed to be tabled at the special session, but Pokhrel resigned from his post in the morning instead of facing the proposal and obstructed the house proceedings, Dahal said in a press statement.

He said though the resignation could be taken positively, the reappointment of the leader on minority as the Chief Minister was ‘unconstitutional’. He claimed that Pokhrel had the support of only 37 members in the 81-member assembly and he was (re) appointed the Chief Minister by the Province Chief in accordance with the Article 168 (1) of the constitution when Kul Prasad KC proposed as the new Chief Minister in the no-confidence proposal was expected to be appointed to the post as per the Article 168 (2) of the constitution. The party has urged the Province Chief to revise the decision and appoint KC as the Chief Minister of Lumbini Province.