Old coalition with new party

According to the second level leaders of UML-Maoist, a new political 'course' has started after an agreement was reached on the matter of alternating the prime ministership and forming an electoral alliance or party unity in the 084 elections. According to this agreement, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal dismissed all his ministers and appointed one minister each from UML, Maoist and RSVP on Monday. UML's Padam Giri, Maoist's Hit Bahadur Tamang and RSVP's Dolprasad Aryal have taken oath as non-departmental ministers.

After finalizing all matters including the leadership of the center and the provinces, there is a preparation to make the senior leaders of UML, RASWP and JASP participate in the government by giving them ministries along with the deputy prime minister. Since Jaspa President Upendra Yadav himself wants to participate in the government, he has not appointed anyone as a minister in the first phase. It has been agreed that he will take the Foreign Minister along with the Deputy Prime Minister.

RSVP president Ravi Lamichhane has been claiming the post of home minister along with the deputy prime minister. However, he has now sent only Deputy Chairman Aryal to the government as he could not reach an agreement. The UML has a claim on the house with the Deputy Prime Minister. It has not been decided who will lead the UML. Similarly, there is an informal agreement that the Maoists will take over and there is a high possibility that Varshaman will be the minister again.

Leaders understand that the share of other ministries will be finalized after the matter of the Ministry of Home Affairs is settled. Prime Minister Dahal has assigned the responsibility of UML president KP Sharma Oli to finalize the Ministry of Home Affairs. The claims of UML and Raswapa about who will take over this ministry have become complicated.

UML President Oli discussed with Vice President Vishnu Paudel and General Secretary Shankar Pokharel until Monday night to decide his strategy. Oli is trying to take over the Ministry of Home Affairs for Poudel as it has been almost agreed that the Ministry of Finance will be taken over by the Maoists. However, the UML and Maoists have been under pressure since the RSVP took a stand in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Even after the discussion at Oli's residence till 12 o'clock in the night, the leaders have not been able to decide whether they will take or leave the house.

Newly appointed Minister Aryal says that there is a claim in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the task of resolving it together with the Sahayatri Party has been given to Chairman Lamichhane. After discussing in the secretariat meeting, we have given all the responsibilities to the chairman. We have told him that we should claim these ministries," he said. "We have advised the chairman that he should go to the government only if he gets at least these ministries. I could not say as it has not been formally decided. The discussion is going on.'

The leaders have prepared to finalize the matter of sharing the ministries on Tuesday. "This matter was discussed at various stages throughout the day on Monday, but an agreement will be reached by 11 am on Tuesday and formal participation will be held at the meeting of the working group at 3 pm," said a leader who participated in the Baluwatar meeting on Monday.

A member of the working group and Maoist Deputy General Secretary Varshman Pun claimed that the cabinet will not be late to complete. By tomorrow (Tuesday), it will be decided which parties will participate in the alliance. Then the cabinet expands and we get to work. This alliance was formed because the Prime Minister said that he could not work, there was no team to work. We don't have to delay, we have to work," he told Kantipur.

Even in the eight-point agreement reached between the top leaders of the four parties of the new alliance, many issues remain abstract except for Dahal to run the government together and National Assembly Speaker Maoist and Vice President UML. The election for the Speaker of the National Assembly is being held on 29 February.

There is a constitutional arrangement to have a maximum of 25 members including the Prime Minister. The number of ministries is only 21, there is facility to keep three state ministers. The alliance has agreed to classify the ministries on the basis of their characteristics and to promote positive dialogue with other parties in the government formation process.

Although the eight-point agreement was signed only by the leaders of 4 parties, homework is being done to bring other parties into the alliance. The leaders said that there was a separate conversation between Prime Minister Dahal and UML President Oli about including CPN (Unified Socialists) in the new coalition. Prime Minister Dahal and outgoing Home Minister Narayankaji Shrestha on Monday evening reached the residence of S. President Madhav Kumar in Koteshwar, Nepal and gave a formal invitation to join the new alliance. "UML President Oli has also telephoned Nepal and requested to participate in the new alliance," said a leader close to Oli.

Ghanshyam Bhusal, General Secretary of United Samajwadi Party, responded that he is now in a 'wait and see' situation. "The prime minister met with our president and decided on a situation, he said that he could not discuss with you institutionally, he had some obligations," Bhusal said. I came to request that we go together. He said that Oliji's message is the same. What are the plans to achieve the objectives of the new alliance? What is the structure? We want to understand that.'

All MPs of S are in favor of the coalition. They believe that there will be unity with UML at this point. Nepal is also under pressure because there is a risk of the party itself breaking up if it does not join the alliance. The secretariat meeting has taken a decision to form an opinion on the basis of merits and demerits, citing the reason why Dahal's purpose of forming a new alliance is not clear.

In the four-party alliance, the government has the support of a total of 142 MPs, including 77 MPs from UML, 32 from Maoist, 21 from RSWP and 12 from JASP. The signatures of 138 MPs are required for a majority in the 275-member House of Representatives. Even if the four parties get a majority for the federal government, Oli and Dahal have tried to include all the parties except the Congress in the government. According to a leader of the

alliance, the United Samajwadi Party (10), CK Raut-led Janamat (6), Reshammalal Chowdhury-led Civil Liberation Party (4) and Mahant Thakur-led LOSPA (4) are also preparing to participate in the alliance. These parties also participated in the alliance of Congress and Maoists. If this happens, the support of around 165 MPs will be in favor of the government. The RPP, which announced a movement with the aim of returning the monarchy, is unlikely to participate in the current coalition. RPP has 14 seats in the House of Representatives.

Janamat and Civil Liberation Party are positive to participate in the government. With three seats in the Federal Parliament, this party has a decisive position in the Far West Province. In the 53-member Sudurpaschim province, Maoists have only 11 seats and UML has 10 seats. The Speaker is a Maoist. The Civil Liberties Party, which has 7 seats, remains decisive in forming the government. Party President Chaudhary has claimed that his party should get a Chief Minister in Far West.