New Delhi: Nepal’s ruling alliance has been in turmoil since Saturday, February 25, after prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (better known as Prachanda) said he will support Ram Chandra Paudel – the candidate from an opposition party – for the post of president.
Paudel belongs to the Nepali Congress party. The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) party, in the coalition under Prachanda, reportedly has its own candidate for the election. Elections to the post of president will take place on March 9.
The term of President Bidya Devi Bhandari comes to an end on March 13. A total of 334 members from the federal Parliament – both from Pratinidhisabha and Rastiryasabha – and 550 members from the seven provincial assemblies will vote for Nepal’s third president. This election presents a major challenge for the sustainability of the Prachanda government, Akhilesh Upadhyay had written for The Wire earlier this year.
Prachanda’s party, Maoist Centre, had contested the Nepal parliamentary elections last year as part of a pre-poll alliance with the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) and two other smaller parties. However, in a surprise move, he broke away from the coalition and formed a government with the rival CPN (Unified Marxist Leninist) and other parties on December 25.
CPN-UML is chaired by former Nepal prime minister K.P. Oli, who the Kathmandu Post reports had a two-hour meeting with Prachanda on Friday. The meeting left Oli disappointed as by that time, the Nepali Congress had already secured backing for its presidential candidate.
Oli had earlier shot down Prachanda’s proposal for ‘a national consensus’ to share the posts of President, Vice President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The Post reports that eight political parties, both in and outside the current government, have decided to support a Nepali Congress candidate in the election for president.
Reuters has reported that Rajendra Lingden, the deputy prime minister who was also minister for energy, water resources and irrigation, has resigned from Prachanda’s government in protest, along with the ministers for urban development and legal matters. A junior minister assisting Lingden also quit.
The Nepali parliament was readying for a churning ever since Prachanda on January 10, passed the parliamentary floor test with flying colours, with nearly all the major political parties in the country voting in his favour.