KATHMANDU, MARCH 12

While one section of Nepali Congress leaders finds reasons to oppose NC President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's announcement that the ruling alliance will contest the forthcoming elections together, there are many within the NC and outside it that see the PM's announcement as a calculated move aimed at averting the formation of a left alliance.

PM Deuba had said at a programme in Birgunj on Thursday, that the ruling alliance would remain intact till the forthcoming elections.

Formation of left alliance was one of the main reasons behind the NC's debacle in the last parliamentary elections.

Out of 165 seats, the NC won just 23.

Political analyst Chandra Dev Bhatta said the PM's readiness to form poll alliance with the ruling coalition partners was mainly aimed at preventing the formation of a left alliance.

'Left leaning lawyers had almost forged an alliance for Nepal Bar Association. The alliance could not be formed because the UML did not give green signal,' Bhatta said and added that grassroots cadres of the left parties were strongly in favour of a left alliance He said the PM's attempt to keep the coalition intact for the polls could also be influenced by his desire to bridge a small gap that led to the defeat of NC candidates in many constituencies. 'There were many constituencies where NC lost election by small margins of 4,000 to 5,000 votes.

Recently, CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Ganga Lal Tuladhar had also said that if the NC did not agree to poll alliance, his party would favour alliance between the CPN- MC, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal.

Another political analyst Uddhab Pyakurel said there were some leaders in the NC that opposed poll alliance with any party saying that if the NC forged alliance with other parties, many cadres aspiring to contest elections, would leave the party in an attempt to win tickets from other parties and that could harm the NC in the long run.

Pyakurel said that the CPN- MC's proposal for forging poll alliance was tempting as it said that in places where a party had won in the last election, the alliance would leave that place for the same party. The CPN-MC has said that in places where the ruling coalition partners had not won in the last, elections, the alliance partners would give priority to those partners whose candidate bagged the highest number of votes among the losing candidates, and this argument also makes sense, he argued.

Pyakurel said the NC leadership felt it necessary to forge poll alliance with the current alliance partners also because the NC, which was an opposition party at both the federal and provincial levels, would be in a better position as it was leading the federal government and had coalition partners in all seven provinces. He said the PM's announcement had exacerbated the main opposition CPN-UML's worry.

Pyakurel said that the ruling alliance had proved the efficacy of poll alliance when it secured sweeping victory in the National Assembly election held on January 26. Out of 19 seats, the ruling alliance won 18 seats and the UML won just one.

Another political analyst Chandra Kishore said the poll alliance could be effective only when the alliance partners would leave the seats for those parties that had stronghold in certain areas and constituencies.

Chandra Kishore said that despite opposition from within, Deuba advocated the need for poll alliance because he rightly believed that the alliance should continue till elections as this alliance was based on moral values to safeguard democratic principles and honestly implement the constitution.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times