A day after pulling out of the coalition, the UCPN (Maoist Centre), backed by the Nepali Congress and CPN (Samyukta), on Wednesday registered a no-confidence motion in the Legislature-Parliament against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who now faces the challenge to prove its majority.

As many as 280 lawmakers of the three parties registered the motion which was proposed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and seconded by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba.

The first and third largest party in Parliament decided to register the no-confidence motion after PM Oli refused to step down by their deadline of 3pm on Wednesday.

“PM Oli should have either resigned or announced that he would prove majority in Parliament,” said NC leader Mahesh Acharya.

After the Maoist Centre, which holds 82 seats in Parliament, withdrew its support on Tuesday, the government led by CPN-UML Chairman Oli has been left without a majority.

According to Bharat Raj Gautam, spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, discussions on the no-confidence motion will start on July 21 as it takes a week for it to mature.

Clause 160 of Parliament Regulations states that the notice for the no-confidence motion has to be given a week for it to mature for discussions.

The schedule for the discussion and voting on the no-confidence motion will be published by the Parliament Secretariat on Thursday.

“Parliament will vote on July 21 itself or the following day,” said Gautam. “The prime minister has to answer the questions raised by lawmakers,”

Oli will automatically lose the prime ministerial post if the no-confidence motion is endorsed by 298 lawmakers out of 595.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari then will call on parties to form a consensus government in a week. Failure to do so within the deadline set by the President will mean parties can start the process to form a majority government.

According clause 49 of the Parliament Regulations, Speaker Onsari Gharti will fix the date for the election of the new prime minister.