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The CPN (Maoist Center) has withdrawn its support to the Gandaki province government.

A meeting of the party's Parliamentary Party today decided to withdraw the backing it had lent to the provincial government, said Hari Bahadur Chuman, the parliamentary party leader of the CPN (Maoist Centre) Gandaki Province Assembly.

The Gandaki province government headed by the Nepali Congress has fallen into minority with the Maoist Centre withdrawing its support to it.

Before this, Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey had relieved two ministers from the Maoist Centre of their responsibility on Tuesday.

The CPN (Maoist Center) has decided to field its candidate for the post of National Assembly Chairperson.

The Standing Committee (SC) meeting convened at the party central office in Parisdanda took the decision to this effect, said party Spokesperson Agni Prasad Sapkota.

Party Vice-Chairperson Sapkota said, "Though there will be discussions in this regard, we will reach a conclusion through consultations. At present, our party has decided to field its candidate for the post of National Assembly Chairperson."

He shared that most of the SC members voiced that the CPN (Maoist Center) should stake its claim on the post.

The post of NA Chairperson would remain vacant from March 3.

Other coalition partners in the government are also claiming their stake for the post.

The CPN (Maoist Center) has emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly (NA), winning five out of 19 vacant seats and increasing its seat in the 59-member chamber to 18.

The Nepali Congress, by winning 10 seats in the election, now has 16 seats, followed by CPN-UML’s 10 seats, thanks to a single seat it managed to win in the NA elections held on Thursday. Nepal Communist Party (Unified Socialist) won two seats, increasing its strength to eight and emerging as the fourth largest party in the upper chamber. 

Former Nepali Congress general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula got elected to the upper chamber from Koshi Province, securing 5,292 votes against Poudel’s 4,562. 

UML’s Rukmini Koirala won from Koshi Province Women’s Cluster, defeating Champadevi Karki, a Maoist Center candidate representing the ruling coalition. The UML candidate polled 5,086 votes against Karki’s 4,922 votes. Karki lost the crucial vote as 17 voters from local levels and three from the province crossed the floor.

The ruling coalition won all four seats in Bagmati Province. Bishnu Devi Pudasaini (Female) and Jitjung Basnet (Others) from Nepali Congress, Shri Krishna Prasad Adhikari from CPN Maoist Center (Differently-Abled) and Ghanashyam Risal from Samajbadi Party (Dalit) won, securing 6,622, 6,531, 6,383 and 6,512 votes, respectively.

Both candidates from the ruling coalition won Lumbini Province. Bishnu Kumari Sapkota of Nepali Congress won as a female candidate with 5,435 votes against CPN-UML candidate Tulasa KC’s  2,867. Jhakku Prasad Subedi (Maoist Center) won in Others category by polling 5,435 votes against UML candidate Jhapendra Gharti Chhetri (Palpa)’s 3,039 votes. 

Madhes Province elected Anand Prasad Dhungana of the Congress and Pooja Chaudhary of Janata Samajwadi Party with 7,370 and 7,929 votes, respectively.

From Gandaki Province, Kiran Babu Shrestha of Congress (Others), Padam Bahadur Pariyar (Differently-Abled/minority) and Manrupa Sharma (Female) of Maoist Center won, polling 3,808, 3,779 votes and 3,660 votes, respectively.

In Karnali Province also, the ruling coalition won all three seats. Sabitri Malla (Dailekh) of the CPN United Socialist Party won with 3,722 votes from the Female category, leaving behind Bimala Kumari Shahi of CPN-UML (1,362 votes).

On Dalit category, Bishnu BK (Bikalpa) of CPN Maoist got elected, polling 3,817 votes against CPN-UML Hikmat BK’s 1,267 votes. Krishna Bahadur Rokaya of the Congress defeated Dilli Prasad Bhatt of CPN-UML in Rukum West, polling 3,870 votes against Bhatt’s 1,214 votes.

From Sudurpaschim Province also, ruling coalition candidates emerged victorious. The winning candidates are Maoist Center’s Renu Chand (Female) and Congress’s Narayan Bhatt (Differently-Abled) as well as Baldev Bohara (Others).

The Election Commission said in a press release on Thursday that 546 out of 549 voters in seven province assemblies cast their votes in the National Assembly elections, marking a turnout of 99.45 percent.

Out of 1,497 voters at local levels (rural municipalities, municipalities, sub-metropolises and metropolises), 1,486 cast votes, marking a 99.97 percent turnout.

The 19 NA members elected in the 59-member upper chamber will replace the incumbents, whose term expires on March 3. As per a constitutional provision, the President will nominate a member on the recommendation of the Cabinet.

The CPN (Maoist Center) has changed the Parliamentary Party leader in Sudurpaschim Province.

A Parliamentary Party meeting of the Maoist Center held at the Province Assembly Secretariat on Friday decided to appoint Man Bahadur Dhami as the Parliamentary Party leader by changing Khagraj Bhatta.

Province Assembly member Shiva Singh Oli said that Speaker Bhim Bahadur Bhandari has already been informed about the change of leader.

The Maoist Center has 11 members including the Speaker in the Province Assembly.

Majority members ( six persons) have changed the leader of the party in today's meeting.

Province Assembly members Man Bahadur Dhami, Akkal Rawal, Shiva Singh Oli, Om Bikram Bhat, Laxmi Bk and Gita Mal were present in the meeting.

The largest parties in the ruling coalition— Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Center)—held a discussion on sharing the National Assembly seats.

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba among other leaders held a meeting at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar this morning.

A preliminary discussion was held on giving how many seats to which party out of 19 seats in the election to be held on January 25, a Congress leader said.

According to a source, there is a possibility that the meeting of the coalition will be held on Wednesday to share the National Assembly seats.

Nepali Congress, Maoist Center, CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party, Democratic Socialist Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party are currently in the ruling coalition.

Though the Rastriya Janamorcha has not joined the government, it has been extending support from outside.

The Congress has claimed 10 seats.

Twelve political parties have applied at the Election Commission to contest the National Assembly election.

The CPN (Maoist Center) and the Nepal Socialist Party have reached an agreement to proceed with the unification process. 

A meeting between the negotiation teams of two parties took place at the Maoist Center's party office in Parisdanda today decided to accelerate the unification process.

According to a joint press statement issued after the meeting, both parties have been advised to establish a party unification coordination committee to address the issues concerning the party's statute, name, organizational structure, election symbol and so on.

The statement was jointly released by Maoist Centre's talks team coordinator Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Nepal Socialist Party's team coordinator Ganga Narayan Shrestha.

Maoist Centre's general secretary Dev Prasad Gurung and Nepal Socialist leader Durga Sob were also among those attending the meeting.

The CPN (Maoist Center) has sought suggestions from experts in the related field with the aim of instilling confidence to do something within the country.

Organizing an interaction with the theme of ‘Country’s economic development model and development program’ here, the Finance and Planning Department of the party has called for suggestions from experts in sectors including agriculture, tourism, energy, water resources, information technology, physical infrastructure, water resources, engineering and commerce for the government to improve the current economic situation of the country.

On the occasion, the party department chief and former Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun stressed the need for stopping the outflow of qualified manpower to foreign countries by creating job opportunities especially through industrialization at home. It is getting late to go for a policy to utilize the manpower within the home country.

Similarly, claiming that many plans of the previous five-year plans failed, Vice Chairperson of the National Planning Commission Min Bahadur Shrestha called for bringing quality in the new plan. High ambitious plans should not be included in the coming 16th Plan learning from past failure, he viewed.

A report involving the suggestions collected will be handed to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, said the department member and economist DP Dhakal.

The CPN (Maoist Center) has decided to hold a meeting with the ruling and the opposition parties to end the deadlock of the House of Representatives and National Assembly.

A Parliamentary Party meeting of the Maoist Center held in Singha Durbar on Monday morning decided to hold a concrete decision to resume the House session, Chief Whip Hitraj Pandey said.

“We believe that a solid conclusion will be drawn by discussing with the leaders of the main opposition and other parties to elect chairpersons of the subject committees and to resume the Parliament,” he said.

Pandey said that the deck to resume the House will be cleared after a meeting of the senior leaders of major political parties with the Speaker.

Earlier, the main opposition CPN-UML had demanded a ruling to form a high-level probe committee alleging that the government ministers and high-ranking leaders of the Maoist Center were involved in the gold smuggling case.

But when the Speaker tried to proceed with the business in the zero hour, the UML lawmakers chanted slogans and gheraoed the well.

Speaker Ghimire has been postponing the Parliament meeting by pasting the notice at the request of the government after the ruling parties disagreed with the stand of the main opposition CPN-UML.

“The House is being obstructed. The main issue is how to resume the Parliament proceedings,” Pandey said, adding, “Prime Minister and Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed the leaders to implement the decisions made by the Central Committee meeting.”

The ruling CPN (Maoist Center) has reshuffled roles and responsibilities among the party leaders.

A meeting of the party Central Committee held today at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar endorsed the proposal floated by party Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to this regard, according to Prime Minister's press expert Manohari Timilsina.

According to the revised allocations of roles and responsibilities, party Deputy General Secretary Barshaman Pun has been appointed as the In-Charge of a special province which remains as a non-territorial province. 

The decision is aimed at further increasing the vibrancy of the province, it has been learnt.

In addition, another Deputy General Secretary Janardan Sharma has been assigned the responsibility for Bagmati Province.

Meanwhile, Secretary Leelamani Pokharel will serve as the In-Charge of Madhesh Province, and Secretary Devendra Paudel will be responsible for Gandaki Province.

Furthermore, Chakrapani Khanal has been selected as the In-Charge for Koshi, Hitman Shakya for Lumbini, Matrika Yadav for Karnali, and Dilaram Acharya for Sudur Paschim Province.

Furthermore, leader Girirajmani Pokhrel has been assigned to take charge of Valley Liaison Coordination Province and Ram Karki will be taking charge of Overseas Province.

Party Vice-Chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara has been assigned the role of coordinating the Socialist Front and overseeing the party unification procedures.

Similarly, another Vice-Chair Pampha Bhusal has been entrusted with the responsibilities of coordinating the party-aligned people's organizations while Agni Prasad Sapkota has been appointed to oversee the party's Publicity Department.

Ganesh Shah will take charge as the new In-Charge of the Science and Technology Department.

Dinanath Sharma has been assigned to coordinate the party organizations of intellectuals, human rights activists, teachers, and legal practitioners.

On top of that, all in-charges for various fractions of the party's aligned people's organizations have been changed.

Additionally, the roles and responsibilities of the party's standing committee and central members have been determined.

The CPN (Maoist Center) has decided to expand its Central Committee.

A Standing Committee meeting held on Wednesday before the Central Committee meeting decided to expand the Central Committee by amending the statute to ensure inclusiveness.

Currently, there are 387 members in the Central Committee of the Maoist.

The Maoist Center is preparing to make 22 women members as central members.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, party spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the party is preparing to bring some women, youths and left out senior leaders to the Central Committee.

In the Central Committee meeting, party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal will present a political report by briefing on the recent political situation, Mahara said.

The members will get time to air their views after the party Chairman presents the political report, he said.

The five-day Central Committee meeting of the Maoist Center is starting from Wednesday in Kathmandu

The CPN (Maoist Center) has decided not to live-stream the Central Committee meeting slated for August 2-6.

An office bearers meeting of the Maoist Center held on Wednesday before the Central Committee meeting decided not to live-stream the meeting, Central Office Secretary Dor Prasad Upadhyay said.,

Earlier, the party had decided to broadcast their Central Committee meeting online with an objective of directly providing a glimpse of the meeting's proceedings to the general public and party cadres.

After most of the leaders expressed their dissatisfaction over the party’s decision to live-stream the Central Committee meeting, which is considered an important meeting, an office bearers meeting held this morning decided not to stream the meeting live.