KATHMANDU: Leader Baburam Bhattarai, who left the UCPN-Maoist on September 26, is not influencing any members of the Parliament from the Maoist party in the prime ministerial election, his personal secretariat claimed.

Issuing a statement on Sunday, his personal aide Bishwadeep Pandey said the rumours that Bhattarai has asked some Maoist lawmakers loyal to him to abstain from voting in the Parliament is baseless.

According to Bhattarai's statement, Bhattarai is currently concentrating on his plan to lead the country towards economic development and is not involved in any political game.

After leaving the Maoist party, he is holding discussion with people from various quarters of life and visiting different parts of the country. He has already announced that he would form a new political force.

With 83 lawmakers in the party's parliamentary squad, the UCPN-Maoist has officially decided to support CPN-UML candidate KP Sharma Oli in the prime ministerial election.

The Parliament is scheduled to elect the new prime minister today.

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