Bagmati CM Shakya resigns, new CM to take over on Thursday

Kathmandu [Nepal], October 27 (ANI): Chief Minister of Bagmati Province Ashta Laxmi Shakya has resigned from the post ahead of the vote of confidence on Wednesday.
CM Shakya announced her resignation while addressing the meeting of the Bagmati Province Assembly and tendered her resignation to Provincial Chief Yadav Chandra Sharma later in the afternoon.
Shakya had to face the vote of confidence after the split of CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist). She was appointed as Chief Minister on August 18 and remained on the post for 71 days.
She also set the record as Nepal’s first female Chief Minister and had been in the minority after the UML split. Out of 109 members in the Bagmati Province Assembly, Chief Minister Shakya needed 55 MPs to garner a vote of confidence but after the split, she only had 43 MPs on her side.
Chief Minister Shakya was formerly seen close to the then disgruntled faction of CPN-UML led by Madhav Kumar Nepal but later she sided with KP Oli after getting assurance of being nominated into the post.
Shakya also had tabled a vote of confidence motion on October 10 and the province lawmakers had expressed their opinion on her proposal on October 27.
The ruling coalition has agreed to hand over the Bagmati chief ministership to the Unified Socialists. In Bagmati, there are 22 lawmakers from Nepali Congress, 23 CPN-Maoist Center and 13 Unified Socialist MPs.
The ruling coalition has fielded CPN Unified Socialist’s Rajendra Pandey as the next Chief Minister of Bagmati Province. Pandey now has the support of 59 lawmakers.
The coalition has submitted the signatures of 59 provincial lawmakers out of the 56 lawmakers required for a majority in the 110-member state assembly.
Among them, 23 are from the Maoist Center, 22 from the Nepali Congress, 13 from the Unified Socialist Party and one from the Janata Samajbadi Party. (ANI)