KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 8

If the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives with 89 seats, succeeds in keeping the current coalition intact, chances of it leading the next government are high.

The coalition led by the NC has 136 seats in the 275-membere HoR, two short of the majority.

Other partners of the coalition have 47 seats -- the CPN-MC 32, the CPN (Unified Socialist) 10, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party-Nepal four, and Rastriya Janamorcha one.

The CK Raut-led Janmat Party, which has six seats in the HoR, is positive about joining the five-party alliance. If it does so, the NC-led alliance will have a comfortable majority, with 142 seats in the HoR.

Chances of the NC roping in more parties and independent candidates into the ruling alliance are also high. As of today, chances of the Upendra Ya-dav-led Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal becoming part of the alliance are slim.

Nepali Congress leader Bimalendra Nidhi said his party would elect the new parliamentary party leader after lawmakers were sworn in. He said Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was most likely to be re-elected the parliamentary party leader as he commanded the majority.

'We'll try to choose the parliamentary leader on the basis of consensus, but if other leaders vye for the post, there will be election,' he added.

Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a leader of the CPN-MC, a ruling coalition partner, said his party had not thought anything beyond the current coalition.

'We have jointly issued a statement expressing our commitment to remain united,' he said.

He said coalition partners would follow due process of forming the government. 'We will form the government only after HoR members have been sworn in. We are not like KP Sharma Oli who became the PM after 2017 elections without taking the oath as a member of the HoR,' he said.

A version of this article appears in the print on December 9, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.