KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 17

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife Arzu Deuba met CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli at the latter's Balkot residence this evening minutes after talks with ruling coalition partners - CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN (Unified Socialist) - over the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Nepal Compact ended inconclusively.

PM's move to reach out to the main opposition party's leader is being interpreted as his determination to secure parliamentary ratification of the MCC compact, risking a split in the ruling coalition if the coalition partners continued to object to the compact.

Deuba's meeting with Oli went on till late evening.

Recently, Oli had mocked CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal for assuring the US of securing parliamentary ratification of the MCC deal and going back on his pledge.

NC leaders have said that they will seek to table and pass the MCC deal even if it leads to the breaking up of the ruling coalition.

The CPN-MC and the CPN-UML want the MCC compact to be amended.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.