To be sworn in by president today
Kathmandu, December 25
There are no permanent friends or permanent foes in politics, only permanent interests. The saying was once again proven true when CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who just two years ago had led street protests against KP Sharma Oli for dissolving the House of Representatives and later split the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), today joined hands with Oli to form a new government.
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari appointed Dahal as the new prime minister under Article 76 (2) of the constitution after he submitted a list of 169 lawmakers who supported him.
Dahal broke away from the five-party ruling alliance today to forge a new seven-party alliance. The new alliance includes the CPN-UML and has 166 lawmakers, apart from three independents - Amresh Kumar Singh, Prabhu Sah, and Kiran Kumar Sah.
An HoR member needs the support of only 138 lawmakers to become the prime minister.
Politics took a dramatic turn today as Dahal left the ruling alliance to join hands with the KP Sharma Oli-led CPN-UML after the Nepali Congress refused to let Dahal lead the next government.
NC leaders had been trying to convince Dahal that they would allow him to lead the government in the second half of the five-year term, but Dahal was adamant on leading the government first. With the formation of a new alliance dominated by left parties, the NC, which was eyeing posts of both the president and the prime minister, has lost not only these posts, but also its share in the federal and provincial governments.
Dahal will have to seek the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives within the next 30 days. He will take the oath of office and secrecy from the president tomorrow.
Dahal has the backing of the KP Sharma Oli-led CPN-UML, the Rajendra Lingden-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party, the Rabi Lamichhane-led Rastriya Swatantra Party, the Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, the CK Raut-led Janmat Party, and the Ranjita Shreshta-led Nagarik Unmukti Party, apart from three independent members of the HoR.
The Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist) has not joined the new alliance.
Earlier, after a meeting of the new alliance partners held at Oli's residence in Balkot, UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel told mediapersons that it fell on the new alliance to take the initiative to form a new government as the largest party – the NC – did not do the same. Pokharel said had their effort to form a new government under Article 76 (2) of the constitution failed, the NC would have led the government as the single largest party and that would have been against the people's mandate.
Pokharel said the partners of the new alliance would discuss sharing other key posts after the formation of the government.
Earlier, in a meeting of the ruling alliance, NC President Deuba told Dahal that his party's leaders were against Dahal leading the next government.
Dahal then left the Baluwatar meeting and went to Balkot to join hands with Oli.
Dahal has become the prime minister for the third time since joining mainstream politics in 2008. He first became the PM in 2008 and then in 2016.
Formation of the new alliance is a major political setback to the NC, which was in a position to form governments in provinces as well, but with the formation of the new alliance, it will struggle to form a government even in one province.
CPN (US) leader Beduram Bhusal said his party had proposed in the ruling alliance meeting yesterday that if the NC and the CPN-MC could not agree on who should lead the government first, they should allow CPN (US) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal to lead the government for the first one year.
Comfortable majority for seven-party alliance
Party HoR Lawmakers
CPN-UML 78
CPN-MC 32
RSP 20
RPP 14
JSP-N 12
Janmat Party 6
NUP 4
Independents 3
Total 169
A version of this article appears in the print on December 26, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
