KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 3
CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal today told party leaders that while the party got good results in the provincial assembly elections, it failed to get expected number of seats in the House of Representatives.
The CPN-MC, which won 36 parliamentary FPTP seats in 2017 elections has won only 17 FPTP seats thus far. It is currently leading in just one constituency - Dolakha According to CPN-MC leader Ganesh Shah, Dahal told the meeting that there was a need to strengthen the ruling alliance as the country would face more challenge in the future.
The election review meeting was attended by party leaders Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Pampha Bhusal and Dev Prasad Gurung. Gurung told the meeting that he lost because international forces conspired to defeat him. He also said these international forces had aided the rise of Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party.
Gurung was defeated by UML leader Prithvi Subba Gurung in Lamjung. After his defeat, Gurung had called for left unity, but many other leaders were not very enthusiastic about the left alliance.
Another CPN-MC leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the party had not decided to leave the current ruling alliance, but it was keeping its options open, including the option of alliance with the CPN-UML.
Lilamani Pokharel said a review of the previous collaboration with the CPN-UML was needed if the party was thinking of forging alliance with it.
Dahal and other prominent leaders had said in the run up to the elections that the current ruling alliance would protect democracy, the constitution and changes brought by the 2006 popular movement.
Many analysts believe it will be difficult for the CPN-MC to forge alliance with the CPN-UML, which they had blasted for dissolving the House of Representatives twice.
Former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, who heads the UML, had dissolved the HoR twice. The Supreme Court had reinstated the Lower House.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 3, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
