With only two and a half months left until the government-scheduled House of Representatives elections, the two major parties, the Nepali Congress and the UML, are giving top priority to the restoration of parliament. On the one hand, they have approached the court for a judicial review of the dissolution of the House of Representatives, and on the other, they are trying to take Gen-G representatives into confidence in the restoration agenda.

Both parties are also making internal preparations to participate in the upcoming House of Representatives elections. The Congress and the UML have already registered their parties with the Election Commission for the election purposes, and have also started the process of selecting candidates for the proportional system in the House of Representatives.

The UML has issued a circular to the district committees to send three names for proportional candidates based on inclusive and proportional principles. The UML has stated that the names will be received from the districts by Friday and the proportional candidates will be selected by 13 Poush. The Congress had started the selection process for proportional and direct candidates two weeks ago. The closing list of proportional candidates has been set for 13 and 14 Poush to be submitted to the commission. The nomination for the direct route will be held on 6 Magh. 

UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has been raising his voice for the restoration of the House of Representatives since last Asoj. The UML has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on 10 Mangesh, demanding the restoration of the House of Representatives after taking a decision from the party. On behalf of the Congress, eight people, including the outgoing chief whip and whip, had also filed a petition with the Supreme Court on 23 December for restoration. 

After Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba recently appeared positive in favor of the restoration of the parliament, a supplementary petition was filed on Tuesday with the signatures of 57 outgoing Congress MPs. It also includes the signatures of one each from Janmat and JSP and one independent outgoing MP. Even though the outgoing MPs have gone to court with a writ petition, there are different views within the Congress on the restoration of the House of Representatives. The institutional decision of the Congress will go to the election. 

After a close meeting with UML Chairman Oli, close leaders say that Congress President Deuba is increasing his activism in favor of restoration.

He had also summoned the outgoing MPs of the establishment party and leader Shekhar Koirala's party, who had refused to sign in favor of restoration until some time ago, and instructed them to sign for the purpose of submitting it to the court.

Although leader Koirala himself did not sign, the outgoing MPs from his party have signed. The MPs from the General Secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwaprakash Sharma party have not signed. According to the leaders, no other leader from the Congress was included in the repeated dialogues between Deuba and Oli on the issue of reinstatement, except for Deuba's wife Arju Rana, who is also a former foreign minister.

'After a series of dialogues with the UML chairman, activities from collecting signatures of the outgoing MPs to filing a writ took place under the direction of Chairman Deuba,' said a Congress official.

After the supplementary application was filed by the Congress, a majority of members of the dissolved House of Representatives have been seen in favor of reinstatement. UML's outgoing Chief Whip Mahesh Bartaula says that the majority signatures were shown in the writ so that the court would not have any doubts that the House of Representatives would not have a majority to form a government when it is reinstated. "We have signed the majority to remove the suspicion that the parliament will be restored but there will be no situation to form a government," he said. 

There is another background to collecting the signatures of the majority of MPs of the dissolved House of Representatives. Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut had asked, "Has any party reached the Supreme Court?" while hearing the writ petition against the dissolution of the House of Representatives on 12 Kartik. He was curious whether this was also a concern of the parties. It was then that the writ petition was filed by the UML and the Congress. 

According to another UML leader, Oli and Deuba have also prepared a roadmap for the post-restoration process at an informal level. They plan not to continue the restoration of the House of Representatives for more than six months, to form a government based on an all-party consensus, to give first priority to members of the House of Representatives under the leadership of the government, and if there is no consensus on that, to add a clause to Article 76 of the Constitution and make the current or former Chief Justice the Prime Minister. 

UML's outgoing chief whip, Bartaula, said that UML does not want the restored parliament to last more than six months after arranging the necessary constitutional and legal amendments. According to him, UML would be ready to amend the constitution if a situation arises where a prime minister needs to be formed from outside the parliament.

'The restored parliament cannot deliver anymore. It will not be carried out until 2084. Restoration is only called to correct the decision to dissolve the unconstitutional House of Representatives recommended by the unconstitutional interim government and bring the constitution back on track,' Bartaula said. 'It would be better to appoint a prime minister under the leadership of a party with an all-party consensus. If consensus is not reached, UML is ready to open all doors. Our institutional view is that only a legitimate government formed by parliament should hold elections.' 

Congress leader NP Saud says that elections can provide a way out of the current crisis rather than restoration. 'I do not believe that restoration of the House of Representatives will provide a solution. If there is a situation where there is no election, restoration can be an option,' he said, 'The mandate is natural. Restoration is not natural, it is a temporary option.' 

Gen-G Council coordinator Sudhan Gurung says that the first priority is the election. He says that in the event that there is no election, restoration of the House of Representatives will be the last option. 'The first option is to bring everyone together and contest the election. If that doesn't happen, we have considered restoration as the last option,' he says, 'It has been said that restoration will be done only for amending the constitution. Congress and UML are thinking of running the parliament. That is not acceptable to us.' 

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Shishir Khanal said that the infection will not be resolved by restoring the House of Representatives. 'The political situation in which the Gen-G movement took place led to a situation where the then Congress and UML leaders had to leave power and flee. That movement not only threw away the power, but also ended the legitimacy of the Congress and UML, which were in power at that time,' he said, 'The essence of the people's movement should not be devalued by restoring the parliament, which the Congress and UML have lost legitimacy. Now it is up to the people to decide. That is the best option.' 

The government is confident that the election will be held. In a meeting held on Tuesday with UML Chairman Oli, Congress President Deuba, and Nepali Communist Party Coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal in the presence of President Ram Chandra Poudel, Prime Minister Sushila Karki had said that the government was moving in the direction of the election. 'The Prime Minister and the ministers are judges who came from the court. They have understood the spirit of the court. That is why the Prime Minister is enthusiastic about the election,' said a government minister, 'The atmosphere of restoration can be seen only if the election cannot be held. But as of today, the security agencies and the government are fully prepared for the election.' 

Former Nepali Congress chief whip Shyam Ghimire says that the House of Representatives can be restored based on the Supreme Court precedent, the Chief Justice and judges are not allowed to work in areas other than human rights, and the constitutional provision that the Prime Minister cannot be appointed from outside the parliament.

‘Either the constitution should have been repealed at that time. The Prime Minister was appointed through unconstitutional means with this constitution. The President dissolved the House of Representatives unconstitutionally on the recommendation of the Prime Minister who was appointed without citing the article of the constitution,’ he says, ‘Even if the election is held on 21 Falgun, we will say that it was an unconstitutional election conducted by the government when we went to seek votes.’ 

19 writs related to the dissolution of the House of Representatives have been filed in the Supreme Court. These writs have not been heard continuously. Earlier, the filing of the registered writs has been fixed for 18 Pus. After that, a judge said that all the writs can be put together and taken to the hearing stage. 

The court did not stop any program related to the 21 Falgun election during the preliminary hearing, so the UML has intensified its internal preparations for the election. Bartaula, the then chief whip of the UML, says that although the restoration of the House of Representatives is the party's first priority, preparations are also being made for the election. He says that after the writ petition of the majority of the members of the dissolved House of Representatives, the court should give a decision before the nomination of a direct candidate.