CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that he has already talked with Nepali Congress (NC) President and Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba about making NC central member Surendra Pandey the chief minister (CM) of Gandaki.
Dahal, who is the common coalition candidate for the House of Representatives (HoR) from Gorkha-2, said so while addressing multiple election gatherings in the constituency on Saturday and Sunday.
Pandey was unanimously recommended as the grand old party's candidate for HoR from Gorkha-2 but had to give up the constituency after Dahal suddenly decided to contest from Gorkha-2 and not Chitwan as he had in the last election five years back.
Pandey is now contesting for the provincial assembly from Gorkha-2(B) that was won by NC in 2017 even when Maoist Center had allied with CPN-UML with promise of post-election unification.
Dahal addressed more than 40 election gatherings on Saturday and Sunday and claimed that he will become PM and Pandey, who accompanied him in all those programs, Gandaki CM.
Former PM Baburam Bhattarai, who proposed Dahal to contest from Gorkha and accompanied Dahal, also added that Dahal would become PM and Pandey Gandaki CM.
Bhattarai also relinquished the constituency, that he had won defeating Narayan Kaji Shrestha of left coalition with support of NC in 2017, for Dahal in return for his daughter Manushi Yami Bhattarai becoming the common candidate of ruling coalition from Kathmandu-7.
