Congress, UML stick to their guns

KATHMANDU, FEB 09 - Ahead of Monday’s prime ministerial election, the two major political parties—Nepali Congress and CPN- UML —have defended their respective positions on electing a new President.

The NC wants to give continuity to the incumbent President citing the Interim Constitution that the tenure of the head of state remains until the promulgation of a new constitution by the Constituent Assembly.

However, the UML has refused to discuss ministerial portfolios arguing that the new CA has been mandated to elect the President like any other top political post. Both the parties are unwilling to backtrack.

The UML is in talks with the NC taskforce and leaders close to Congress senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba simultaneously. The party initiated talks even with leaders close to Deuba sensing conflicting views within the NC regarding new presidential election. Contrary to NC establishment’s take for concentrating on the prime ministerial election, the Deuba faction has adopted flexibility, according to UML leaders.

Both NC and UML have also approached the UCPN (Maoist), the third largest party, to garner its support.

“Both the Maoists and leaders close to Deuba are positive about replacing incumbent President with a new one but the NC establishment is not ready to go for fresh presidential election,” said UML leader Gokarna Bista.

UML leaders, however, are unsure of Maoist support. “They [Maoists] may support the NC leaving the agenda of President halfway if the NC offers them plum positions,” said Bista.

The UML believes that its stance on new presidential election in the face of a fresh mandate will weaken if the Maoist party agrees to vote for the NC ’s prime ministerial candidate in exchange for offers in the new government cashing in on the UML having to occupy the opposition bench. Publicly however, the Maoists have spoken for electing a new President.

Contrary to its earlier stand to allow the NC to lead the government as the largest party, the UML , which is not a much smaller party, has warned of filing candidacy for the PM’s post.

On Saturday, UML lawmaker Rambir Manandhar collected the PM nomination form from the CA Secretariat hinting that the party could field its candidate if the NC stands for continuity of President Ram Baran Yadav. “The move was to create pressure for settling the row,” said UML leader Pradeep Gyawali.

Even UML top leaders say they will join an NC -led government if the party agrees to elect key officials. They say their party is not concerned much about ministerial berths and will be a part of new government once the Presidential row is settled in consensus.

“The NC has accused us of obstructing the process of forming a new government. But we are ready to join the government even without the Home portfolio if the President is changed,” said UML Parliamentary Party leader KP Sharma Oli.

A high-level meeting of the NC and the UML was under way until the time the Post went to press in their bid to seek agreement. NC President Sushil Koirala, UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and Parliamentary Party leader Oli were meeting at the residence of NC leader Deep Kumar Upadhyay in Tripureshwor.

In the meeting, the UML proposed to settle the row over power-sharing and presidential election even by deferring the prime ministerial election scheduled for Monday while the NC stood against the idea.

There is no need to defer the date as talks are going positive, said NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat.

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