NC leaders have intensified talks with FSF-N and RJP-N. I hope we’ll reach a conclusion on Saturday: Nepali Congress leader Farmullah Mansoor

Kathmandu, October 27

Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal have accused the Nepali Congress of not taking seriously the task of forming a democratic alliance.

Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal leader Ram Sahay Yadav, who is a member of the task force created to expedite formation of a democratic alliance, said the NC was not very keen to form the alliance.

“The NC must change its mindset of 2013 elections and commit to addressing the issues raised by Madhesis and other marginalised communities,” he said.

An RJP-N leader also told THT on condition of anonymity that the NC was not taking the task of forming a democratic alliance seriously. “We want to form a democratic alliance to counter the challenge posed by the left alliance but the NC leaders appear to be forming only electoral alliance,” he said. He added that the NC leaders had floated the idea of forging electoral alliance in constituencies where alliance partners could reach an agreement and competing in the constituencies where the alliance partners could not reach an agreement.

“In our party too, there are leaders who agree with NC leaders about ‘friendly match’ because they also want to issue tickets to their favourites and believe that their candidates can easily win if there are many candidates from many parties,” the RJP-N leader said. He added that the NC was selecting their FPTP candidates which meant that it wanted to allocate fewer FPTP constituencies to other constituents of the democratic alliance. “If the NC declares its FPTP candidates before dividing constituencies among democratic alliance constituents, it will not withdraw its candidates later,” the leader argued.

Nepali Congress leader Farmullah Mansoor, who is also the minister of labour and employment, however, rejected FSF-N and RJP-N leaders’ accusation. He said his party was making sincere efforts to form a democratic alliance. “Our party leaders have intensified talks with FSF-N and RJP-N lately and I hope that we’ll reach a conclusion tomorrow,” Mansoor said. He added that talks between the two sides were positive. “We want to make our dialogue result oriented,” he added.

Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal leader Sarvendranath Shukla, who is a member of the task force formed to expedite formation of a democratic alliance, said his party and the FSF-N had no problem forging an alliance with the NC.

Shukla claimed that an understanding would soon be reached as the NC and the RJP-N/FSF-N had agreed to support candidacy of the alliance’s top leaders. “We’ll have common candidates where candidates of the left alliance are strong contenders,” he added.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Buddhiman Tamang said the NC had agreed to allocate seven parliamentary FPTP constituencies to his party leaders but his party had been demanding nine FPTP seats. “We will probably reach a conclusion tomorrow on seat sharing,” he added.

According to Tamang, the NC had agreed to allocate constituencies for his party in Jhapa, Makwanpur, Parsa, Banke and Kathmandu.