Madhesh now

Without viable provinces, the glue that holds federal and local units together, the federal system will collapse.

The game of musical chairs continues in the Madhesh provincial assembly. After just 25 days of becoming chief minister, Jitendra Sonal had to resign on Saturday. This happened after two Maoist Centre lawmakers defected and refused to back his government. Before him, Satish Kumar Singh had served in the same position for 16 months. Prior to that, it was Saroj Kumar Yadav who occupied the post for 17 months. This fast-changing cast of characters in Madhesh after the 2022 provincial elections is indicative of the larger failure of the provincial system to take root. It is strange that Madhesh should see this level of instability. While the provincial governments around the country were changing nearly every year after the 2017 provincial elections, the government of Lalbabu Raut in Madhesh had served out a full five-year term. One reason for the stability of the Raut government was that while the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the Maoist Centre between them formed governments in other provinces, the Madheshi parties were in the majority in the first Madhesh provincial assembly. Yet in the second assembly, the traditional parties had made a roaring comeback and sidelined the Madhesh-based outfits.