Nepali Congress leaders not willing to make way for Dahal to lead the new government
KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 24
Top leaders of the ruling alliance, including Nepali Congress and CPN-MC, met today to discuss government formation but failed to forge consensus on which party - the Nepali Congress or the CPN- Moist Centre - should lead the next government first.
CPN-MC leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha told THT they demanded that their party Chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal be allowed to lead the first half of the five-year term, but Deuba said his party leaders did not accept the proposal and they wanted the NC to lead the next government. The ruling coalition partners will discuss government formation tomorrow.
The president's seven-day deadline to members of the House of Representatives to form the new government ends tomorrow.
Rastriya Janamorcha leader Durga Paudel said Deuba and Dahal had staked claim to form the government and ruling coalition partners would discuss the matter tomorrow.Partners of the ruling coalition are of the view that the ruling alliance should form the next government, she added.
NC leader Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, who is the Minister of Communications and Information Technology told mediapersons after the meeting that the question of who should lead the government first would not create problem in the ruling coalition. He said coalition partners had agreed to move ahead as per the wishes of the public.
NC leaders say allowing another party or the CPN-MC to lead the next government would go against the wishes of the voters as NC had emerged as the largest party in the HoR.
They also say that NC should get both key posts - president and prime minister.
"Who should lead the next government is a secondary question. Indeed how the country should reflect the people's aspiration is the issue of primary importance. It is important to respect people's vote and achieve the goals of stability, development and progress," Karki added.He said the current coalition would form the next government.
Asked if the ruling coalition was thinking of requesting the president to extend the deadline to form the new government, Karki replied in the negative.
The president has given seven days' time to HoR members to form a new government under Article 76 (2) thatprovisions for formation of a new government in case of a hung Parliament.
Earlier, NC leader Ramchandra Paudel met CPN-MC Chair Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal urging them to keep the current five-party alliance intact.
Meanwhile, CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli rebuffed CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal saying that he himself had spoilt his own chance of becoming the next prime minister as he failed to take decisions on time.
Addressing a programme organised at the party headquarters in Lalitpur today, Oli said, Dahal's chance of becoming the next PM was almost nil.
"Dahal has expressed his desire to become the PM, but I think he has delayed his decision," he said, "There is a saying in Sanskrit that if one fails to act in time, he/she fails to achieve the results." Oli said that there was a possibility of the country going to polls sooner or later.
"Possibility of mid-term polls cannot be ruled out because a new government has not been formed," Oli said. He said his party was the only party that was concerned about the well-being of the country and all other parties were concerned only about opportunities for their leaders. Oli said that his party could collaborate with those parties that shared the UML's views on political stability, development and nationalism.
Later, talking briefly to mediapersons, Oli said that the CPN-MC Chair should have left the current five-party alliance well in advance, but he kept being part of the alliance in the hope that he would become the PM with the support of alliance partners.
UML leaders had been saying that if CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal wanted to forge a new alliance with the CPN-UML in order to become the next PM, he should first leave the current ruling alliance.
He gave the analogy of ripe mangoes which the intended beneficiary could neither eat nor sell it if he/she did not pluck them in time.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 25, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
