Kathmandu, Feb 24: Senior leaders of four parties have gathered in Baluwatar to discuss about the possible candidate for the future president. At the invitation of the Prime Minister and Chairman of the CPN (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, leaders including Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Janata Samajwadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal have reached the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.
The leaders who held several rounds of discussions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday called Friday’s meeting a decisive one. Congress leaders are trying to collectively formalize the informal discussions held in these meetings and revive the five-party alliance of the past under Congress leadership.
Prime Minister Dahal has repeatedly articulated that the next president should be elected by national consensus. However, the Prime Minister’s party, the Maoist Centre, has already decided not to support the CPN-UML in the presidency as per the previous agreement in the ruling coalition.
On December 10, Dahal, who broke the equation with the Congress and became Prime Minister in alliance with the CPN UML, had agreed to give the president to the UML at that time. But less than two months after taking the vote of confidence, Dahal, who changed his promise at that time, said that he would be weak in the power equation given by the President to the UML, and started an initiative to create an atmosphere of national consensus in the presidential election.
According to the Congress leaders, Prime Minister Dahal has already agreed to give the President to the Congress a week ago. But the leaders of Maoist and CPN (US) are also discussing the option of making Madhav Kumar Nepal the president by reviving the previous Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), which would be almost impossible.
There is a program to register the nomination of candidates for the presidential election on February 25. Prime Minister Dahal, who became the decisive factor in the presidential election, is preparing to reach a decision after discussions with four parties including Congress and CPN-UML on Friday.
The Congress, which claimed to present its own candidate for the presidency, is waiting for Dahal’s decision. After Dahal made his opinion on Friday, the Congress will prepare to select candidates from the performance committee meeting on Saturday.
