SURKHET: Karnali Province Chief Minister Yamlal Kandel is facing a severe political crisis after lawmakers from the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) and the Nepali Congress (NC) jointly filed a no-confidence motion against him on Thursday.

The motion, registered in accordance with Article 188 (sub-sections 4 and 5) of the Constitution of Nepal, explicitly proposes NC leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi as the next Chief Minister.

This sudden political realignment follows the exit of four Nepali Congress ministers from the CPN (UML)-led provincial government on Thursday.

While the NC ministers resigned their cabinet posts, the party had initially stopped short of officially withdrawing support. However, by Thursday, a faction of NC lawmakers broke ranks to form a new political equation with the opposition.

The motion was signed by a coalition of 16 lawmakers, consisting of 11 from the Nepali Communist Party (including Raj Kumar Sharma) and 5 from the NC.

Although the NC holds 14 seats in the provincial assembly, the signature of just 5 lawmakers was legally sufficient to trigger the challenge, comfortably meeting the mandatory 25% threshold required to table a no-confidence motion.