CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has urged Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal to not dither long about the presidential election.
He also asked Dahal to give a clear answer about whether he would implement the agreement reached at the time of forming the government during their meeting at Baluwatar on Wednesday, according to a UML source. “Chairman asked him to at least be honest with himself and remember the past agreement,” the source added.
Dahal in response repeated that he would move forward after holding discussion.
The source confided that Oli proposed to make CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal the next president during their meeting but a source close to Dahal claimed that Oli didn’t make the proposal.
“They discussed about the presidential election. But there has been no discussion about any individual,” the source close to Dahal stated. “PM is making efforts to move forward forging consensus.”
Dahal quit the coalition with NC and Unified Socialist on December 25, 2022 and became PM with support of CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, RPP, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party after Nepali Congress (NC) President 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 on January 10.
Dahal has not specified what such national consensus is but multiple party sources have confirmed that Maoist Center looks set to support NC candidate in the presidential election.
