The main opposition CPN-UML has also expressed interest for sharing of National Assembly seats with the ruling coalition.
Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has told the meeting of Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Center) at the PM’s residence in Baluwatar Wednesday morning about UML’s interest.
Top leaders of the two parties, who also met on Tuesday, met at the prime minister’s (PM) residence in Baluwatar Wednesday morning as well. They will again meet later in the afternoon as PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal had a busy schedule in the morning, according to a leader who attended the meeting.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka, General Secretary Gagan Thapa and leader Ramesh Lekhak represented the grand old party in the meeting that also featured Maoist Chairman Dahal, Senior Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Deputy General Secretary Barsha Man Pun.
A leader told Setopati that top leaders of the two parties will talk with UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli after their meeting Wednesday afternoon. The ruling parties are likely to discuss the issue of ending the peace process along with sharing of National Assembly seats during the meeting with Oli.
NC and Maoist Center have only discussed about their respective weighted votes in each province until now and not entered the actual issue of sharing seats.
NC’s central committee meeting held from Thursday-Saturday at Sanepa has already decided to field common candidates on the basis of agreement with parties in the ruling coalition in the election to be held on January 25 next year for 19 National Assembly seats that will be vacant from March 4, 2024.
The term of Bimala Rai Paudel, who was nominated by the then president on recommendation of the then KP Sharma Oli government, is also set to expire on March 4.
Nine of the 20 members whose term is set to expire in March are from UML including Bimala Rai Paudel nominated by the president. The National Assembly members whose term is set to expire also includes four from NC, three from CPN (Maoist Center), two from CPN (Unified Socialist), one from Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and independent lawmaker Khim Lal Devkota.
NC is under pressure from its leaders to stake claim for 10 out of the 20 seats but the ruling coalition has yet to agree on sharing of seats. NC is unlikely to get 10 seats if the ruling coalition decides to share seats even with the main opposition UML.
NC has also prepared standards to select party’s candidates for the election whose nominations must be filed on January 8.
The standards would prioritize those who have contributed to the party by considering geographical and ethnic balance from among the names recommended by the districts and provinces. The standards would also prioritize those with capacity to contribute in the electoral constituency, committed toward the party and with clean image.
There have been demands in NC to prioritize new face in the National Assembly election this time. But many leaders have requested removal of their names from the closed list of candidates for Proportional Representation electoral system of the House of Representatives (HoR) to become candidate for the upcoming National Assembly election, while some who had lost in the last HoR election are also aspiring to become National Assembly member.
