Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that the pre-election coalition could be revived due to courage of Prime Minister (PM) and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and generosity of CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Deuba praised the two leaders addressing an orientation program for federal lawmakers organized on Thursday by eight parties for the presidential election.
Deuba lauded Dahal for showing courage to break the ruling coalition formed on the Christmas Day just two months later and Nepal for agreeing to revive the pre-election coalition despite CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli offering him the post of president in a last-ditch attempt to save the two-month old coalition.
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 Deuba refused to make him PM first.
But the then coalition was revived last week initially by NC, Maoist Center, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and Unified Socialist, and four other parties joined in later.
The eight parties have fielded NC senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel for the presidential election to be held on March 9.
Deuba called Paudel a long-time friend and stated that he was the right person to become the next president. “We could hear complaints that Paudel was not given anything. We are now making him president,” Deuba added.
Nepal also called Paudel the right presidential candidate while Dahal claimed that Paudel would be elected the next president while addressing the orientation program.
