• Meets Prime Minister Deuba • Eyes seat sharing deal ahead of polls

KATHMANDU, AUGUST 9

Chairpersons of Nepal Samajbadi Party Baburam Bhattarai and Mahendra Ray Yadav met Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and urged him to include their party in the current ruling alliance.

According to Bhattarai's personal aide Bishwadeep Pandey, Bhattarai told Deuba that they had played a role in forming the current alliance and were within their rights to claim to be part of it. Prime Minister Deuba told Bhattarai and Yadav that he was in favour of inducting NSP in the five-party alliance and he would sit with other coalition partners in the next few days to discuss the issue.

A meeting of the ruling alliance will be held after CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal returns from his Japan trip tomorrow, the PM told Bhattarai and Yadav.

Pandey said talks between the Nepal Samajbadi Party and the PM were positive.

According to Pandey, Bhattarai told the PM that he was in the forefront of the movement against 'regressive moves' of the then prime minister KP Sharma Oli and had helped form the current alliance. Bhattarai said it was natural for his party to seek induction in the current alliance. He said when other leaders were silent about the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact, he supported the deal unequivocally as that was in the interest of the country.

Pandey said once his party was formally inducted into the current alliance, it would seek a seat sharing arrangement with coalition partners in the upcoming provincial and parliamentary elections scheduled for November 20.

Bhattarai, who was in the Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, formed his own party after Yadav expelled nine party leaders, including Bhattarai, for holding a simultaneous party meeting. Bhattarai has accused Yadav of not rising above caste and regional considerations.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 10, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.