Nepal PM KP Oli quits just before no confidence vote after allies depart

Nepal's Prime Minister KP Oli resigned on Sunday, nine months after coming to power, minutes before parliament was to vote on a no confidence motion he was likely to lose.

Oli, 64, was forced to quit after allies of his multi-party coalition deserted the government accusing him of not honouring power sharing deals that helped install him as prime minister in October.

"I have already submitted my resignation to the President when I met her before coming to the house," said Oli in a speech in parliament just ahead of the scheduled no confidence vote. 

In order to pave the way for the formation of new government, the meeting of Cabinet decided to recommended President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to use the power to remove difficulties as per the Article 305 of Nepal's Constitution, reports the Himalayan Times.

Article 305 confers power on the President, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, to remove any obstacles that might arise in course of implementing the Constitution.

Although the parties that filed no confidence motion in the Parliament had stressed that there was no constitutional hurdle barring the formation of the new government, Oli-led government had argued otherwise. The recommendation has cleared the path for Oli to step down.

The Parliament had elected Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Chairman Oli as the Prime Minister on October 11, 2015. Deliberations on the no-confidence motion is underway in the Parliament which was brought in by Oli's former trusted ally Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist Centre and the main opposition Nepali Congress