CPN (Maoist Center) Assistant Secretary General Janardan Sharma has said that preparations are underway to make Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepal Congress (NC) the presidential candidate of the four-party coalition.
“We are close to an agreement for Paudel to be the presidential candidate. A final deal will now be reached after holding further discussions on the ruling coalition,” Sharma told Setopati on Friday afternoon. “Further discussion with other parties will take place after the four parties reach a formal agreement.”
NC, CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and CPN (United Socialist) previously agreed to revive the pre-election coalition.
The top leaders of the four parties agreed to revive the old coalition after Friday’s meeting in Baluwatar.
Unified Socialist insisted on making President Madhav Kumar Nepal the next president. The JSP also supported the United Socialist position, while the Maoist Center said the decision should be made by consensus of all four parties.
Dahal resigned from the coalition with NC and Unified Socialist on December 25, 2022 and became Prime Minister (PM) with the support of CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, RPP, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party after the Nepal 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.
