CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal has urged Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal to take initiative for national consensus in the presidential election.
“PM should work for forging national consensus. We want our understanding to be stronger. I have asked for setting for a long journey,” Nepal told journalists after meeting with PM Dahal at the Singha Durbar on Monday.
Nepal said many names are being talked about when pointed his name was also being considered for consensus president, and added that it was one thing to be considered and quite another to be finalized.
Dahal left for meeting of CPN (Maoist Center) office-bearers after talking with Nepal.
The presidential election is scheduled for March 9 and nominations will have to be filed on February 25.
Dahal has been regularly holding meeting with CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli to discuss presidential election but they have yet to reach agreement.
Sources in Maoist Center claim that the party will soon take a formal decision to support Nepali Congress (NC) candidate in the presidential election concluding that making someone from the ruling coalition president cannot provide stability to politics and can put the party in a difficult situation.
Maoist leaders complain that Oli has been relentlessly putting pressure on Dahal to take decisions in Oli’s favor since then. 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.
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.
