Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has repeated his recent refrain that it is too early to try to remove Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli to CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Dahal met Deuba at the latter's residence in Budhanilkantha for 20 minutes on Tuesday and proposed to make the main opposition leader prime minister (PM) saying Maoist Center will soon withdraw the support from Oli government.
Deuba in response repeated that time is still not ripe for that, according to an NC leader close to him, pointing that the government has initiated dialogue for release of Janta Samajwadi Party (JSP) leader Resham Chaudhary.
"Oli seems keen on JSP's demands. Talks are continuing. President feels that JSP can support Oli if they reach a deal," the leader stated. "We may again be left red-faced if JSP allies with CPN-UML due to our haste. Let's not do that," the leader quoted Deuba as telling Dahal.
Dahal reportedly told Deuba that Oli cannot be given more time as he is trying to remove Maoist chief ministers of Karnali and Far West. "We have concluded that the support for Oli should soon be withdrawn," a leader close to Dahal confided with Setopati. "We have waited for a while fearing that the politics may take a turn toward instability if we withdraw the support without giving an alternative."
The leader claimed that NC seems positive about leading the government and added formation of a new government has been delayed only due to Deuba's fear that they cannot muster majority. "New government can be formed if NC, Maoist Center and JSP come together. We believe that JSP will not support Oli who flirted with regression."
UML has 121 House of Representatives (HoR) members. JSP currently has 32 with Resham Chaudhary jailed and Hari Narayan Chaudhary suspended. NC, which had won 63 seats, has 61 members with Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar suspended and Mohammad Aftab Alam jailed.
Oli is trying to forge alliance with JSP or even the Mahantha Thakur faction of JSP as the support of Thakur faction alone suffices to garner majority should the other faction refuse to join Oli government.
