Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli is positive about making Agni Sapkota the party's candidate for speaker, a CPN standing committee member confided with Setopati.
Oli has become positive about making the former Maoist leader Sapkota the next speaker after the meeting with Puhspa Kamal Dahal Sunday morning.
"I have heard that there is agreement on the name of Sapkota. The secretariat meeting will likely take the final decision," the standing committee member stated. "I understand that PM Oli is positive about."
The two CPN chairmen had a one-on-one meeting for almost two hours at the PM's official residence in Baluwatar Sunday morning to discuss the issue. The ruling party has called secretariat meeting later in the afternoon to take a decision.
Both the former CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) factions are claiming for the post of speaker. Oli wishes to make former Constituent Assembly chairman Subas Chandra Nembang the speaker while Dahal has been insisting that Agni Sapkota from the Maoist faction should get the post.
Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe has been defying secretariat meeting's decision asking her to resign while the party has also not been able to select its candidate.
The former Maoists in ruling CPN have started to feel that she has not resigned on instruction of Oli while The House meeting has already been postponed thrice due to the intra-party dispute in the ruling CPN about its candidate for speaker.
The secretariat meeting at the prime minister's residence in Baluwatar on January 11 had asked Deputy Speaker Tumbahamphe to resign even as she had already turned down the request by CPN Chairmen KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal to resign.
The chairman duo had urged Tumbahamphe to pave the way for speaker election by resigning during the meeting at the prime minister's residence in Baluwatar on January 9. But she asked for the reasons that disqualified her from being the next speaker.
"I was active in student politics and am still active. I have studied and taught. What are my weaknesses?" a source quoted her as asking the chairmen.
The source revealed that she urged the chairmen to allow her to continue as deputy speaker if deemed incompetent for speaker.
Ruling CPN cannot claim for the post of speaker if the election process starts without her resigning. The senior most lawmaker will then run the House if she resigns.
The ruling party will have to ask Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, whose allegiance is now with CPN having won the last general election on a CPN-UML ticket, to resign to keep the post of speaker with the party as the Constitution prohibits appointment of speaker and deputy speaker from the same party.
Both the former CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) factions are claiming for the post of speaker. The Maoist faction points that it should again get the post it had received during the power sharing before party unification.
Deputy Speaker Tumbahangphe's own claim for the post and refusal to resign if denied has compounded matters for the party.
The post of speaker is vacant after Krishna Bahadur Mahara resigned following rape allegation by a federal parliament secretariat staffer
