Congress still undecided

#KarkiImpeachment

KATHMANDU, Oct 25: Although the parliament is set to begin deliberations on the impeachment motion against CIAA chief Lokman Singh Karki on Tuesday, the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) was unable to decide the party's position on the issue as of Monday evening.

The largest political party in parliament has called its CWC meeting again for Tuesday morning to forge its official position on the motion against Karki as several of the party's CWC members have yet to express their views on the issue. A total of 21 CWC members had put forth their views during the ongoing CWC meeting on Monday.

According to CWC member Badri Pandey, CWC members mainly gave three different views on the impeachment issue. While a section of CWC members have maintained that it is not wise to back the impeachment motion brought by the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Center), others have suggested that the party's top leadership should be entrusted the responsibility to decide the issue.

Likewise, other CWC members speaking during Monday's CWC meeting have argued that although leftist parties did not consult the NC before registering the impeachment motion it is not wise to vote against Karki's impeachment motion considering his questionable background as well as professional integrity and overwhelmingly negative public opinion against him.

Those speaking during the CWC meeting on Monday included Bal Bahadur KC, Balkrishna Khand, Dr Minendra Rijal, Umakanta Chaudhary, Bhishma Raj Aangdambe, Chandra Bhandari, Dhan Raj Gurung, Gururaj Ghimire, Pushpa Bhusal, Mahendra Yadav and Ajaya Kumar Chaurasiya. Sources said the CWC meeting called for Tuesday morning is likely to entrust the party's top leadership take appropriate decision on the issue.

CWC members said party president Deuba is also preparing to call the party's parliamentary party meeting before the parliament starts deliberations on the issue at 3 pm, Tuesday.

How the numbers might align

At least 397 of the total 595 votes in parliament are required to pass the impeachment motion against CIAA chief Lokman Singh Karki. As of Monday evening, CPN-UML (182 votes), CPN (Maoist Center) (82) and Rastriya Janamorcha (3) have made formal decision to back the impeachment motion, while Nepali Congress (207), RPP-N (25) and various small parties remain undecided. Likewise, various Madhes-based parties (63) have expressed in public that they will not to support impeachment motion. Similarly various other fringe parties that have a total 33 votes have not made their position public on Karki’s impeachment issue.