KATHMANDU, MARCH 25
Majority of speakers who spoke during the Nepali Congress' central working committee meeting today spoke of the need for forging poll alliance with the ruling coalition partners.
The CPN-Maoist Centre and the CPN (Unified Socialist) are keen on forging poll alliance with the NC, but there are strong voices against any poll alliance within the NC. The Shekhar Koirala faction for one does not want to forge any poll alliance.
Out of six presidents of NC provincial chapters, four – presidents of Province 1, Bagmati, Karnali, and Madhes chapters - spoke in favour of forging poll alliance with the ruling coalition partners, particularly the CPN-MC and CPN (Unified Socialist), said NC Lumbini chapter President Amar Singh Pun.
Pun and Gandaki provincial chapter president Shukra Raj Sharma spoke against forging poll alliance with other parties. Pun told THT that most of the speakers who spoke today said local chapters of the party should decide whether or not to tie up with other parties.
Speaking to mediapersons after the party's CWC meeting, Pun said if the party leadership tied up with other parties, it could suffer the fate of the Indian National Congress, which could not even win 100 seats in the last two parliamentary elections.
Pun said that party President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba wanted to forge poll alliance with other partners of the ruling coalition at any cost. He chided party leaders who spoke against poll alliance.
NC leader Bal Bahadur KC said NC's experience of poll alliance with the CPN-MC was bitter.
He said in the last election, the NC forged an alliance with the CPN-MC, but the latter tied up with the CPN-UML in parliamentary and provincial assembly elections.
Pun also told mediapersons that there was no guarantee that the CPN-MC would not betray the NC again.
KC said, "We must be clear on why we should forge alliances? Do we want to strengthen a political leader or a political system? We must be clear on that,"
KC added.
He said the party should first try to promote unity within the party before trying to forge poll alliances. He said the Shekhar Koirala faction got 40 per cent votes in the last general election and on that basis Deuba should respect the faction's existence, but in practice Deuba was not doing that and in the last two-three months, he was taking decisions unilaterally.
Meanwhile, NC Spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat told mediapersons after the party's CWC meeting that the talk of NC President Deuba trying to impose poll alliance was false. He said an alliance would be forged only when there was a need for it.
Mahat said party leaders had reported to the party leadership that in some places a poll alliance could be a better option, but in other places, the party should contest election on its own.
NC Lumbini chapter president Amar Singh Pun told THT that if the central leadership imposed its decision on local units to forge poll alliances in local polls, local chapters could rebel against the party leadership.
Twenty-one CWC members and six chiefs of provincial chapters spoke in today's meeting, according to Chief Secretary of NC Headquarters Krishna Poudel.
The next meeting will be held on Sunday.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 26, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
