and Nepal Sadbhawana Party under the premiership of Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. A faction of the party led by former prime minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand were dissatisfied with the coalition government and in March 1996 some cabinet ministers close to Chand withdrew their support for the Deuba government and resigned before a no-confidence vote was set to table by the opposition CPN (UML). The ministers withdrew their resignation before the no-confidence vote and Deuba won the confidence vote. Six cabinet ministers close to Chand again resigned from the government in December 1996 but supported Deuba in the confidence vote later and rejoined the cabinet. Chand and Thapa governments, 1997–1998 In March 1997 a faction of the party led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand joined a coalition government with CPN (UML), with Chand as prime minister. On 3 October 1997, the faction led by Surya Bahadur Thapa voted for a no-confidence motion tabled by Nepali Congress and toppled the government. Thapa was then made the prime minister on 6 October 1997 with the support of Congress. After losing support within his party Thapa asked King Birendra to dissolve the house and call for fresh elections. After the recommendation of the Supreme Court, the king called forth a special session of the parliament to debate the no-confidence motion filed against Thapa. Thapa survived the no-confidence vote and expelled six central committee members for threatening to back a no-confidence motion against him. The second general convention of the party took place from 12 to 16 November 1997 in Birgunj. Surya Bahadur Thapa was re-elected for a second term as chairman. Prakash Chandra Lohani, Pashupati SJB Rana and Kamal Thapa were nominated as vice-chairman, general secretary and spokesman respectively. Lokendra Bahadur Chand however created his own Rastriya Prajatantra Party on 9 January 1998 claiming that Thapa had mismanaged the party, did not listen to the directions of the central committee and accused Thapa of not holding the general election in a fair manner. He broke off with 10 members of parliament including 8 from the House of Representatives and 2 from the National Assembly. Thapa resigned as prime minister on 10 April 1998 and was replaced by Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala. The two parties contested the 1999 elections and fared badly in the election with the party winning 11 seats and the party led by Chand not winning any seats. Following the