Kathmandu. Nepal Communist Party (UML) President KP Sharma Oli has questioned the sincerity of Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Center) President Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda towards the power alliance.
In the meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday, President Oli expressed dissatisfaction with Prachanda’s role and questioned Prachanda’s sincerity. UML leader Vishal Bhattarai, who is close to Oli, told the Nepal newspaper – ‘He has asked Prachanda to make it clear whether you have sincerity towards the alliance. Chairman Comrade inquired about Prime Minister Prachanda’s role in following the political consensus when the ruling coalition was formed. Prachanda has also responded positively about maintaining this alliance. However, if a decision is made outside of the coalition regarding the president, we will not be in a position to sit in the government because this is the coalition.’ The UML claims that when the government was formed on January 10, there was an agreement between the leaders of the ruling coalition to give and take the Prime Minister to the Maoists, the Speaker and the President to the UML and the Home Minister to the National Independent Party.
As the presidential election is approaching, UML wants to get the president and the Maoists have not given up their position of the president of the common consensus. Oli has started throwing new options in the political market as a new strategy to bring the same crisis to the hands of the President. It is understood that Prime Minister Dahal, who has put forward the agenda of making the president of national consensus, has also proposed Madhav Kumar Nepal, chairman of CPN Unified Socialists, as the next president. However, the leaders of the United Socialist Party have claimed that this is just a rumour. Although there was a meeting between Oli and Nepal last Monday, it is not yet known what was discussed in the meeting.
On December 9, Maoist Chairman Prachanda had expressed that he could never become the Prime Minister, and Oli had bowed down to the party Congress, which was leading the five-party alliance at the time, and broke the alliance.
In the meeting with the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Maoist Center Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday morning, there has been talk that Oli put forward the names of Madhav Kumar Nepal and Subas Nemwang for the presidency. According to a close source, PM Prachanda will consult with the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSPA) and the Democratic Samajwadi Party (LOSPA) in response to Oli’s proposal that UML will propose a person who has been supported by the Congress and you have also promised President Nepal.
The United Socialist Party has made it clear to its party president that the President’s proposal did not come from nowhere. Spokesman Jagannath Khatiwada said after the meeting of the Secretariat of the United Samajwadi held on Wednesday that the party did not receive the President’s proposal. He said – ‘We have not received any proposal from the President. That chapter has been closed. We have taken a policy to discuss it with other parties in the coming days.’
Stating that he will stand in favor of national consensus as much as possible in the presidency, Khatiwada said – ‘The candidates will be from political parties. We are also a party. No one has a majority. If it was, the current discussion would not have happened. If someone else is nominated, they will win with our vote. Even if it happens to us, we will win with the votes of others. Our party is also on the same line.’ He said that it will be decided only after discussions with parties including Congress and Maoists.
Similarly, the respected leader of the party, Jhalnath Khanal, insisted that even though President Nepal reported to the party about the recent meeting, he did not say anything about the President’s proposal and said – ‘The President reported about the current situation, regarding the meeting, but he reported that the President’s proposal came to our party. No.’
Ramhari Khatiwada, the leader of Nepali Congress, says that the Maoist, who formed the government by forming a new alliance of seven parties to become the Prime Minister, was burnt by distrust within the coalition party within two months. ‘Prachandaji has seen many discomforts in this alliance’, Khatiwada said – ‘I have found that he is thinking of reviving the old alliance and easily handling the responsibility of the Prime Minister. The political course moves according to who you support in the presidential candidate.’