Nepali Congress (NC) leader Ram Chandra Paudel has said that NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba betrayed CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
When asked about NC’s views on the agreement reached between CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center) and other parties at Balkot on Sunday to make Dahal prime minister, Paudel said, “I wouldn’t say Prachanda [Dahal] betrayed, Prachanda [Dahal] was betrayed.”
Paudel had met Dahal at Khumaltar on Saturday and urged him to not break the alliance. In reply, Dahal had proposed that NC keep the president and give him the first term as prime minister to save the alliance.
“I will also feel proud if you, a personality who played a role in the peace process, are the president and I am the prime minister,” Dahal had told Paudel during the meeting.
The ruling coalition had reportedly agreed to make Paudel president, but the coalition unraveled over who should become the prime minister first.
Dahal reached Balkot to meet CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Sunday afternoon after Deuba refused to make Dahal prime minister first during a meeting between Dahal, Deuba and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal at Baluwatar earlier in the day.
The meeting of top leaders of UML, Maoist Center, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajwadi Party, Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party at Balkot agreed to make Dahal the next prime minister.
The meeting has reportedly agreed on Dahal's heading the government for the first two-and-a-half years, but there has been no formal announcement about it yet.
