Can NC-UML Alliance Restore Stability?

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's government has abruptly fell into minority after the two largest parties in the lower house of parliament— the Nepali Congress (NC) with 88 lawmakers and the CPN-UML with 79 lawmakers — inked a pact last Monday to set up a new coalition to form a national consensus government. Now that the two parties have 167 MPs in the 275-member House, it seems no one can stop them as they are determined to form the next government. As the two parties signed a 7-point agreement for the new coalition and declared to bring amendments to the constitution to “set right the nation’s parliamentary politics,” they are expected to gain support from other fringe parties such as the Rastriya Prajtantra Party (14 lawmakers), the newly formed Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal (7 lawmakers), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (4 MPs), Upendra Yadav's JSP, and others, potentially bringing the total number of MPs on the treasury bench to more than 184, which is a two-third majority.