Deuba's exit was not as pleasant as he had expected due to his failure to understand the demands of the time and circumstances.
Former Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba wanted to contest the election for the last time. His name was included in the list sent by his group on Monday.
The Deuba faction had sent a list of candidates for about 82 constituencies, including Shekhar Koirala's. According to a leader who participated in the talks, in some places, two or three options were even given for the same constituency. In the discussions between the three groups of negotiators on Monday and Tuesday morning, an agreement was reached to contest the elections with the signature of Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa and distribute tickets as agreed. Accordingly, the Deuba faction submitted a list to President Thapa, including about 70 constituencies from its group and the rest from Shekhar's faction.
Deuba's wife Arju Rana Deuba was not on the list. Since Deuba wanted to contest the election for the last time, a single name was recommended from his home district of Dadeldhura.
Meanwhile, Chairman Thapa and Deputy Chairman Bishwaprakash Sharma wanted to prevent Deuba from becoming the Prime Minister in the upcoming parliament. Deuba himself signed and submitted the list of proportional candidates. Deuba himself has the majority of candidates in it. Directly, Thapa and Sharma were suspicious after the Deuba faction claimed significant candidates.
Even while the special general convention was going on at Bhrikutimandap, Thapa and Sharma were asking Deuba to take a break from active politics. They wanted Deuba to take a break not only from the party presidency but also from parliamentary politics. Therefore, even then, Deuba had proposed that he either announce himself that he would not contest the parliamentary elections or that the party should put forward the name of the future Prime Minister.
The talks were broken off after this dispute failed to resolve the issue. And the special general convention elected a new central working committee.
Even now, Thapa and Sharma were skeptical that Deuba would be able to claim the prime ministership as the leader of the parliamentary party, as he was trying to contest the election from Dadeldhura and make his presence felt in the selection of candidates.
That is why there was a delay in ticket distribution in many places yesterday, said an official. After a long debate on whether to give Deuba a ticket or not, Deuba himself announced that he would not be a candidate at midnight.
'Deuba himself announced that he would not contest the election before that because not giving him a ticket would send a worse message,' said the Congress official. According to him, the officials were thinking of giving him a ticket if he said he would contest the election again. But that could have reduced the tickets of Deuba's candidates in other places.
Deuba, who has been continuously representing the parliament since 2048 BS, has taken an unexpected 'break' in his political journey. Former Nepali Sangh President Nainsingh Mahar has got a ticket from his home district Dadeldhura. With this , Deuba has left the party and parliamentary political journey. Deuba's exit was not very pleasant due to not understanding the demands of the time and situation.
