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Disarray continues to rule
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Leaders of 25 parties
WM Correspondent
It took one month for caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to step down from his post after an agreement on his resignation was reached.
Not less bewildering is the fact even a month after his resignation, a new government has failed to see the light of the day.
This only demonstrates the vicious circle of incoherence and procrastination that has long marred Nepali politics.
Nepal’s resignation was expected to give birth to the national consensus government but that possibility has virtually ended with the parties continuingly showing brazen obsession with power and privileges.
The two rounds of elections to pick a new prime minister have already proved a ridiculous fiasco.
NC's parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel and UCPN (Maoist) chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal are competing in the next round of election slated for August 2.
But, the prospects of the upcoming poll yielding desirable result are very dim.
The third largest party CPN (UML) and even the Mahesh based parties, the support of which is crucial to form a majority government led by either UCPN (Maoist) or Nepali Congress (NC), are most likely to remain neutral in the next round of election.
NC leaders admit their candidate for the post pf prime minister Ram Chandra Poudel will win the race if the UML decides to reinforce him.
Madhes based parties are also awaiting the UML decision in this regard.
However, the UML leadership, which has already withdrawn its candidate from the parliamentary battle for premiership, is sharply divided over the issue.
The two rival factions within the party one led by chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and another by K.P. Oli and Nepal continue to wrangle as far as the party's role in selecting new prime minister goes.
Khanal is determined to block Poudel from becoming Prime Minister while another faction is pressing for decision to support the NC.
Khanal is also suggesting both Poudel and Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal to withdraw their candidacy to create a climate for the formation of a national consensus government.
The Maoists are busy holding secrete meetings with the leaders of other parties except the NC. But, they have so far also failed to garner required support to grab the helms of affairs.
The formal rebels are tenaciously trying to woo the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM), the recently reconstituted forum of Madhes-based parties, into supporting them.
The Maoists should have to succumb to certain controversial demands forwarded by the SLMM if they want to lead the new majority government.
The SLMM appears to have been reengineered just to bar Jhalanath Khanal from becoming Prime Minister although Madhesi Janadhkar Forum Nepal led by Upendra Yadav had pledged his party’s support for Khanal before finally deciding to remain neutral as per the decision of SLMM.
The UML leaders sense the vested interest of New Delhi behind the sudden stimulation of the SLMM that has came in the wake of tension-fraught election for a new premier.
The Madhesi parties will of course not support the UCPN (Maoist) as long as it is possible because they are loyal to the Southern neighbour, which despises the proposition of Maoist-led government
Even if they support the Maoists this will just be a manipulative move.
It will bring UML and NC together so that the Madhes-based parties can finally pull out of the government to form an alliance to press for their parochial interests.
If the parties fail to elect Prime Minister in the third time as well, it will lend credence to the Khanal's stance that the parties should go for changing the parliamentary working procedure regulation to allow others also to join the prime ministerial race.
Maoist vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai has also adopted the same posture.
However, the chances of the NC, the establishment faction of UCPN (Maoist) and the Oli-Nepal faction of UML subscribing to this idea appear slim, at least for now.
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