KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 17
CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal today met Prime Minister and President of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba and discussed how to take the ruling coalition ahead.
Asked if Dahal sought Deuba's support to become the new prime minister, CPN-MC leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha replied in the negative. Shrestha said Dahal asked Deuba how he wanted to proceed, to which Deuba said all coalition partners should decide within their respective outfits. Some online media outlets, however, reported that Dahal sought Deuba's help to become the next prime minister.
Nepali Congress Spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat told mediapersons at Baluwatar that while Dahal's claim to the post of PM was natural, it would be appropriate if the NC, the largest force in the House of Representatives with 89 seats, led the new government.
"I know Dahal has expressed desire to become the new PM, but NC is the largest force post-polls and hence it would be appropriate if the new government was formed under the NC," he said in response to journalists' query.
Mahat said as there was need to seek the help of other parties to form the next government, an attempt would first be made within the party to elect the NC Parliamentary Party leader unanimously to give the message of unity.
"Forming the new government under NC leadership will be appropriate," he added. Another NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi said he was hopeful the next government would be formed under Deuba's leadership.
Forming the new government is going to be tricky as NC President Deuba and CPN- MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal are likely to claim government leadership. Although, the CPN-MC is the fourth largest force, its leaders are saying that since it's the era of coalition, the party also has reason to seek government leadership.
The five-party ruling alliance has not formally discussed who will get which posts – president, vice president, prime minister, speaker, deputy speaker, and chief ministers? Meanwhile, NC President Deuba today called a meeting to welcome the party's newly elected members. NC lawmaker Ramesh Rijal said Deuba welcomed all party lawmakers with shawls and garlands.
Asked if the meeting discussed any political agenda, including the issue of government formation, Rijal replied in the negative. He said the NC had called its CWC meeting tomorrow where party leaders could discuss government formation.
In principle, the tenure of lawmakers commences only after they take oath of office and secrecy, but as President Bidhya Devi Bhandari had, in 2018, appointed KP Sharma Oli PM without oath of office and secrecy, she could call the parties to form the government even before lawmakers took their oath of office and secrecy. "So, I think the NC CWC could discuss such scenarios tomorrow and the party's preferred action," Rijal said.
President Bidhya Bhandari's media expert Tika Prasad Dhakal had earlier told THT that the government could appoint a member of the HoR, who could present the evidence of support of 138 members as the next prime minister.
Dhakal also said that lawmakers' oath of office and secrecy and government formation were two different issues and the two processes could go simultaneously or separately.
The NC wants to start government formation only after it elects its Parliamentary Party leader.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 18, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
