CPN-UML leader Lal Babu Pandit has claimed that KP Oli will become prime minister (PM) for five years and Oli will not take turn with CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal for the post of PM.
Speaking in a program on Tuesday, he also claimed that Oli will remain chairman of the united party after unification with Maoist Center. "There will be no rotation. Oli will lead the government for the full five-year term. There is no doubt about that," he stated. "Oli can also simultaneously become PM and lead the unified party. We are currently discussing about that," he added.
He admitted that Dahal or UML leaders Jhala Nath Khanal or Madhav Nepal may also become chairman of the united party but he expressed confidence that Oli will simultaneously become PM and lead the unified party.
He revealed that the two parties have also been discussing about management of all the leaders of the two parties. "We had created a certain standard even while distributing tickets for the election. We will now create special standards for unification as well. Every leader will be managed. There is no doubt or two ways about that," he assured.
Pandit's claims about Oli serving a full five-year term has come even as there have been rumors about the strain in the left alliance.
UML has grown suspicious due to Dahal’s comments while outside Kathmandu. “We had agreed to take turn to lead the government. I will discuss this issue in the meeting of coordination committee after returning to Kathmandu,” he said in Chitwan.
“UML was thinking about forming the government on its own as election results started to arrive believing that it will get a majority of its own. It started to talk about unification with us only after seeing that Nepali Congress (NC) was getting almost equal votes in proportional representation (PR) system,” he told his cadres in Kawasoti of Nawalparasi.
He then spoke about formation of the National Assembly and the increasing distance with Nepali Congress (NC) in Bhairahawa. He opined that the National Assembly cannot be vibrant without NC. He revealed that he told UML Chairman KP Oli to move forward by taking NC into confidence by ending the dispute about Single Transferable Vote system.
