Only after the representatives choose whether they want to stay with the mother parties or the new parties will the portfolios be distributed
KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 2
CPN(Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal today said that the Sher Bahadur Deuba Cabinet wouldn't be expanded before September 7 or 8.
Talking to mediapersons after assuming the mantle of CPN(US) parliamentary party leader, Nepal said that no coalition leader would think of expanding the Cabinet before September 7 or 8. He was alluding to the time period the Election Commission had given to provincial and local level representatives to choose between the mother parties and the parties that were formed by dissidents.
Dissidents of the CPN-UML and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal had split their mother parties and formed new parties. The EC had given provincial and local representatives until September 7 to choose between the UML and CPN(US), and between the JSP-N and Democratic Socialist Party.
Nepal also said the rumour that his party would merge with the CPN-Maoist Centre and be subsumed by the Maoist party was wrong. He said his party had not abandoned the principles of multi-party democracy propounded by the late UML General Secretary Madan Kumar Bhandari.
The CPN(US) will champion the cause of the Nepali model of socialism keeping in mind the welfare of poor people and marginalised groups of the country. We are a revolutionary force that rebelled against Oli's rightist approach, and will continue to live up to the peoples' expectation, Nepal added.
Nepal said that many provincial representatives were joining his party and he was encouraged by the number of such representatives.
"KP Sharma Oli is trying to mislead the representatives.
I want to tell them not to be misled.
They should not be misled by the 10-point unity proposal," he said, and added that the 10-point unity proposal was just intended to influence the Supreme Court decision in the House of Representatives dissolution case. "If the deal was not aimed at influencing the apex court's verdict, why was there such a hurry to sign the document at 10:00pm one day before the SC was scheduled to deliver final hearing in the HoR dissolution case," Nepal wondered.
He said the proposal was flawed as there was no mention of the requirement that the two leaders had consented. He said Oli had never admitted that he was guilty of making regressive moves in the past.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 3 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
