Nepali Congress (NC) Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba has formally sought CPN (Maoist Center) support in the presidential election with Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Deuba arrived in Baluwatar along with Senior Leader Ram Chandra Paudel, NC Purna Vice Presidents Bahadur Khadka and Dhan Raj Gurung, General Secretary Gagan Thapa and former General Secretary Krishna Sitaula on Sunday evening and proposed Dahal to support the candidate of NC in the presidential elections forgetting what happened in the past.
Dahal resigned from the coalition with NC and Unified Socialist on December 25, 2022 and became Prime Minister with the support of CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, RPP, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party later Nepalese Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to appoint him first prime minister.
Oli had assured NC that UML will not ally with the Maoist Center at all costs and would instead ally with NC to form the new government to encourage Deuba to break the deal to make Dahal PM first.
Paudel told Setopati that NC leaders reminded Dahal of how NC and the Maoist Center had forged an electoral alliance in the recent local, provincial and federal elections and urged to move forward according to the mandate of the people. The NC leaders also pointed out that the big old party is the biggest party and requested the support of the Maoist Center in the presidential election, as no party has a majority in the presidential election.
“PM said it was positive and added that he would discuss within the party first,” added Paudel.
He revealed that Dahal urged Deuba to finalize the party’s presidential candidate first, noting that it would be easier to hold a discussion at the Maoist Center after that. He insisted that NC, however, did not talk about joining the government during the meeting on Sunday.
NC is likely to field either Paudel or Sitaula as its presidential candidate. Paudel has long been lobbying top leaders of other parties to support him in the presidential election. Deuba has also been proposing to introduce Paudel to party leaders, noting that he is likely to get more votes than other leaders. But the party has yet to formally discuss its presidential candidate.
Dahal has been meeting regularly with UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli to discuss the presidential election, but they have yet to reach an agreement.
Maoist Center sources say the party will soon make a formal decision to support the Nepali Congress (NC) candidate in the presidential election and concluded that making someone from the ruling coalition president cannot provide stability to politics and may put the party in a difficult situation.
Maoist leaders complain that Oli has been relentlessly pressuring Dahal to make decisions in his favor ever since. Most Maoist Center leaders had spoken out against voting for the UML candidate in the presidential election during the party’s standing committee meeting in late January.
UML has been saying the party should get the post of president as per the power-sharing deal reached with Dahal at the time of forming the government, while Prime Minister Dahal has been talking about the national consensus for president ever since NC voted for his government during the session. proof.
Dahal has been flirting with Deuba since the plenum test and Maoist sources claim that the party will make the decision to support the NC candidate during the presidential elections.
Some Maoist leaders feel that UML candidates like Subash Chandra Nembang and Ashta Laxmi Shakya can be accepted for president. But most Maoist Center leaders spoke out against voting for the UML candidate in the presidential election during the party’s standing committee meeting in late January.
Multiple sources claim that top North Carolina and Maoist leaders have already agreed on the presidential election and there is unanimity in North Carolina to reach a formal agreement with the Maoist Center for the presidential election.
