Dahal had proposed to Deuba that the parties that were in the same place during the constitution-making process should reach an agreement and move forward. Deuba immediately agreed to it. According to sources, Oli was not accepting it.
What you should know
The Congress, UML and NCP have begun working on an alliance for the upcoming House of Representatives elections as well as the National Assembly elections. The three parties are working on a strategy to extend the alliance for the National Assembly to the House of Representatives elections.
There was an initial understanding between Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML President KP Sharma Oli that only the two parties would form an alliance for the 18 out of the 19 vacant seats in the National Assembly that would be elected. When the two parties came together, it was said that Congress would get 10 seats and UML would get 8 seats. Meanwhile, after discussions between Deuba and NCP coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal, there are signs that the alliance will expand further.
Dahal had proposed to Deuba that the parties that were together during the constitution-making process should move forward by reaching an agreement. Deuba immediately responded positively to it. According to sources, Oli was not accepting it.
When UML President Oli and Dahal had a secret meeting at the residence of businessman Sharada Prasad Adhikari in Lalitpur on Sunday, Oli also agreed to the proposal, according to sources. After reaching an agreement with Oli, Dahal left for India on the same day.
According to Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula, a rough understanding has been reached to coordinate between the parties that were together during the constitution-making process. Sitaula said that Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka informed about this at the Monday meeting of the Congress Central Working Committee.
‘You cannot win by going to the National Assembly separately. On the other hand, the Acting President has informed that the National Assembly will be a place of consensus and that the parties that were in the then Madhesi Front will also participate,’ he said, ‘However, it is not known who will get how many seats.’
According to another leader of the Congress, the number of seats in the National Assembly has also been finalized in the dialogue between the top leaders. The number of seats that each party will get in each province and the total cluster is yet to be finalized. The Congress is likely to get 7, the UML 6, the NCP 3, and the JSP Nepal and the LOSPA, which represent the National Assembly, are likely to get 1 seat each.
However, the meeting held by the Congress to select candidates ended without a conclusion as it was not decided which cluster seat would be taken in each province. ‘As it is not clear who will get where and which group, the candidate could not be selected. Therefore, the meeting has ended with the leaders being brought together,’ said Bir Bahadur Balayar, president of the Congress’s Sudurpaschim Province Working Committee.
The leaders have claimed that this alliance in the National Assembly elections on 11th Magh has also become the basis for a grand alliance between the three old major parties for the House of Representatives elections on 11th Falgun. Due to the risk of internal discontent, the three parties have not wanted to bring the issue of the alliance into institutional discussions.
‘But internally, except for a few exceptional areas, a policy has been made to form an alliance by maintaining the same position in the areas where the Congress, UML and the then Maoists have won,’ the source said. The Congress, UML and the Maoists have been collaborating in the Madhesh Province government.
Similarly, the house of Sharada Prasad, where the dialogue between Oli and Dahal took place, is the same one that gave birth to the collaboration between the UML and the then Maoists before the 2074 elections. The current meeting is being viewed in connection with a possible alliance in the 21 Falgun elections.
Through a series of talks at Adhikari's house, the UML and the Maoists reached an agreement to cooperate in the 2074 elections. Adhikari, the operator of Shailung Construction, is a contractor who has been embroiled in controversy over the failure to complete the contract he took on on time.
The UML-Maoist alliance won 174 seats directly and proportionally in the 2074 elections. The two parties agreed to unite in Jestha 2075 at Adhikari's house. However, a power struggle began between the two leaders after Oli became prime minister.
After the Supreme Court separated the UML and the Maoists while hearing a petition related to the NCP, they split. After the 2079 elections, Oli and Dahal collaborated again. At that time, Dahal became prime minister with the support of the UML. This ruling alliance, which was formed in Poush 2079, disintegrated two months later in Falgun.
Dahal collaborated with Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba after they could not agree on who would be the president. In Asad 2080, the Dahal government collapsed after the Congress and UML began a power partnership. After that, the bitterness between Oli and Dahal increased. Relations between the two leaders had not improved after the Gen-G movement.
Signs of improvement in relations between the two leaders were seen with the conversation between Oli and Dahal for about half an hour on Sunday at Adhikari's house. Before that, Oli had met Deuba on 19 Mangsir and 7 Poush to discuss cooperation. UML President Oli, who became Prime Minister on 17 Asad 2081 in an alliance with the Congress, had proposed to Deuba to collaborate in the elections, saying that the UML had not backed down from the then seven-point agreement.
CPN leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said that separate discussions were being held with the UML and the Congress about nationality and possible cooperation. 'No such concrete decision has been made,' he said, 'We have talked about the overall situation of the country. Now nationality is in danger. Therefore, the issue of how to cooperate is also important.'
He said that Coordinator Dahal is scheduled to meet with Congress President Deuba and Prime Minister Sushila Karki to create an environment for the February 21 House of Representatives elections.
