KATHMANDU, February 20: Nepal Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa today defeated a no-confidence motion amid uproar in Parliament ending a month-long political crisis in Nepal.The opposition garnered 100 votes, three short of the total necessary to oust the government, parliamentary sources said.
The opposition Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) and a breakaway faction of the premier's National Democratic Party (NDP) have accused the government of corruption, administrative mismanagement, disruption of the national economy and failure to maintain law and order.
Thapa has vehemently denied the allegations, saying they had no substance.
The vote on the motion of no-confidence against Thapa's four-month old government was delayed by over an hour due to pandemonium in the parliament, the sources said.
Thapa defended his record, saying "the charges made by the opposition against this government has no substance. The charges are made only for their own sake but they don't containany reality."
He also told parliament "it is most unfortunate that a situation has now developed in the country in which there is the practice of paying money to ministers under the table and wine and women to the MPs to make them happy and vote against the government."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
