CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli asked about completing the Cabinet and the upcoming presidential election during the meeting of high-level coordination committee of the ruling coalition at Baluwatar on Friday.
But Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal did not provide clear answers, according to a Baluwatar source. “Re-induction of Rastriya Swatantra Party in the government was also discussed in the meeting.”
Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) did not participate in the meeting as JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav had just returned to Kathmandu from Janakpur when the meeting started. “I could not attend in lack of time. But the way that the coalition is going forward will not work. We have not said who we will vote for in the presidential election,” Yadav told Setopati.
Five ministries are currently vacant after RSP quit the government. UML has also been putting pressure in the coalition for supporting the party’s candidate in the presidential election. But Dahal has not provided clear answers.
Dahal has been recently saying that it would be better if president were elected through national consensus. He even called an all-party meeting at Baluwatar and proposed national consensus be forged for constitutional posts but CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli rejected the proposal outright.
UML leaders have been claiming that there was agreement about giving the posts of speaker and president to UML before forming the government. But it is not yet known whether the agreement was written or verbal.
Maoist Center has not yet specified what the national consensus that the party is seeking is. But UML suspects that Maoist Center wants to give the post of president to Nepali Congress (NC) in return for the confidence vote to the Dahal government violating the power sharing agreement in the coalition.
Most of the Maoist leaders also seem to be against giving the post of president to UML.
Both UML and NC have already announced that they will field candidates for the presidential election. Maoist Center can prove decisive in the presidential election.
The Election Commission will hold the presidential election on March 9 and the vice-presidential election on March 17.
