KATHMANDU: Coordinator of Naya Shakti Party-Nepal Baburam Bhattarai on Monday met Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and sought to forge electoral alliance with the Nepali Congress. Bhattarai’s aide Bishwadeep Pandey informed that Bhattarai told the PM he would contest parliamentary elections from his home constituency of Gorkha-2 and he expected the NC not to field its FPTP candidate in that constituency.

Bhattarai quit the left alliance after the CPN-Maoist Centre rejected this very proposal. According to Pandey, both Bhattarai and Deuba discussed the possibility of forging electoral alliance in other parts of the country, including in Gorkha.

“The PM was positive regarding Bhattarai’s proposal,” Pandey said. According to Pandey, Deuba told Bhattarai he would discuss his proposal with NC leaders and let him know about it.  Pandey said the NSP-N was also trying to forge electoral alliance with Madhes-based parties in the Tarai as well as with other political parties in the hills.