Nepali Congress (NC) Spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat has said that the grand old party should support Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal for five years if CPN (Maoist Center) votes for NC candidate in the presidential election.
Talking with News Agency Nepal Mahat has stressed that NC should extend the confidence vote for PM Dahal for five years if Maoist Center supports NC’s candidate in the presidential election.
He has argued that NC candidate would be the obvious choice for president in the current situation. He has also claimed that NC voted for PM Dahal during the floor test to protect the Constitution and added that national consensus for president is the best possible option. He has urged all the pro-Constitution forces to vote for NC candidate when CPN-UML is not ready for national consensus to give president to NC.
Pointing that President Bidya Devi Bhandari has repeatedly violated the Constitution, he has argued that NC candidate should be elected president to ensure that is not repeated implying that another president from UML can continue what President Bhandari has been doing.
Mahat’s remarks have come as Maoist Center increasingly looks set to support NC in the presidential election.
Dahal quit the coalition with NC and Unified Socialist on December 25, 2022 and became prime minister (PM) with support of CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, RPP, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party after Nepali Congress (NC) Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to make him PM first.
UML has been saying that the party should get the post of president as per the power-sharing agreement reached with Dahal at the time of forming the government while PM Dahal has been talking about national consensus for president since NC voted for his government during the floor test.
Dahal has been cosying up to Deuba since the floor test and Maoist sources claim that the party will take a decision to support NC candidate during the presidential election.
Some Maoist leaders feel that UML candidates like Subash Chandra Nembang and Ashta Laxmi Shakya can be accepted for president. But most of the Maoist Center leaders had spoken against voting for UML candidate in the presidential election during the party’s standing committee meeting at the end of January.
Multiple sources claim that top NC and Maoist leaders have already agreed about the presidential election and there is unanimity in NC to reach formal agreement with Maoist Center for presidential election.
