top of page
rkbhonsle

Switching of Coalitions in Nepal


Image Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Ahead of the presidential elections there is a shift in the coalition that is likely to take place as the CPN UML has walked out of the government as well as the alliance of the parties which was led by the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.


A new coalition is now being formed with a consensus on the Presidential elections.


A task force under NC vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka to include CPN (Maoist Centre) General Secretary Dev Gurung, CPN (Unified Socialist) General Secretary BeduramBhusal, senior leader of Janata Samajwadi Party Rajendra Shrestha, Janamat Party's Abdul Khan, Sharat Singh Bhandari of Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, Ranjita Shrestha of Nagarik Unmukti Party and Chitra Bahadur KC of the Rastriya Janamorcha Nepal are the members of the Khadka-led taskforce.


Presidential Elections


The Election Commission (EC) has published the voter list for the presidential election for March 9. There will be 881 voting members in the final list published by the EC. It includes the names of 331 members of the federal parliament and 550 members of the provincial assemblies.


As four parties (Maoist Centre, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti) of the seven-party ruling alliance supported Congress leader Ram Chandra Paudel’s candidacy for President rejecting UML’s candidate Subas Nembang the writing was on the wall.


Of the seven-party ruling coalition government formed on December 25 comprising CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Swatantra Party [RSP] and Rastriya Prajantra Party [RPP], Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party the RPP and RSP have already left the government but not the coalition so far.


Mr Ram Chandra Paudel is expected to be elected as the President given the numbers supporting his candidature.


CPN UML Quits But Does Not Give Up


On February 27, the CPN-UML decided to quit the government after a clear signal from Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal who stopped Minister for Foreign Affairs Bimala Rai Paudyal’s for a trip to Geneva. Paudyal was to participate in the 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council slated for February 27 to March 17.


The new coalition that is expected to come up will comprise of the Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti, the RPP is not likely to join the government led by the Nepali Congress whereas the approach of the RSP is not clear so far.


Nepali Congress senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel will be confronting CPN-UML’s of Subhash Nemwang who is a senior leader and a former speaker of the Party for the Presidency. The CPN UML filing of papers was attended to only by the party representatives and the coalition partners were not present.


Anil Giri of Kathmandu Post claimed in a report that UML leaders hope to use the days before the vote to turn the tide in their favour.


“We will try our best to create a rift in the eight-party alliance and install Nembang as the President,” a UML office-bearer told the Post.





2 views

Comments


bottom of page