Under pressure to resign, PM Oli cabinet prorogues parliament’s budget session

PM KP Sharma Oli’s meeting with President Bhandari is his second meeting in two days.

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who has been under intense pressure from rival factions within the communist party, on Thursday decided to prorogue the ongoing Budget session of parliament, according to news agency ANI. PM Oli’s cabinet cleared the formal recommendation at a meeting convened shortly after the prime minister called on President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, sparking off buzz about the fast-moving developments in the Himalayan nation.

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has been under pressure to resign from his party

This was PM Oli’s second meeting with the President in two days.

PM Oli has been under pressure from

PM Oli’s meeting with the President followed several rounds of discussions in the Nepal Communist Party’s standing committee meeting over the last week that saw PM Oli clashing with co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal and Bamdev Gautam. Dahal, also known as Prachanda, had stepped up his attacks in recent days to demand that PM Oli step down from the twin posts that he holds, the party’s co-chair and the prime minister.

PM Oli doesn’t have a majority in the communist party’s standing committee but a senior leader insisted that support within the standing committee wasn’t the only barometer. But it is clear that the prime minister is in trouble.

Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, who supported PM Oli at previous meetings, also appeared to switch sides, according to a report in the Kathmandu Post.