Deputy General Secretary of CPN (Maoist Center) Janardan Sharma has said that preparations are on to make Ram Chandra Paudel of Nepali Congress (NC) the presidential candidate of the four-party coalition.
“We are nearing agreement to make Paudel the presidential candidate. Final agreement will now be reached after holding additional discussions about ruling coalition,” Sharma told Setopati Friday afternoon. “Additional discussion with other parties will be held after the four parties reach formal agreement.”
NC, CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and CPN (Unified Socialist) earlier agreed to revive the pre-election coalition.
Top leaders of the four parties agreed to revive the erstwhile coalition after the meeting at Baluwatar Friday.
Unified Socialist was insisting on making Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal the next president. JSP had also supported the Unified Socialist stand while Maoist Center had said decision should be taken through consensus of the four parties.
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) President Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to make him PM first.
Oli had assured NC that UML will not ally with Maoist Center at any cost and would instead ally with NC to form the new government to encourage Deuba to break the agreement to make Dahal PM first.
