The ruling alliance including CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Center) is at stake following the repetitive stance of UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli to make his party’s senior vice-chairman Ishwor Pokharel the country’s president.
After UML Chairman repetitively stressed on taking ahead Pokharel as the common presidential candidate of the alliance, PM Dahal has reached to the conclusion that the current coalition cannot go long.
Since the agreement was forged earlier to pick speaker and president from UML, Oli has been emphasizing on Pokharel and opining the Maoist Center must support the consensus forged on December 25.
However, Prachanda is not ready to accept Pokharel as the president at any cost.
Pokharel is also known to be one of the factors for the division of the defunct Nepal Communist Party NCP, which was formed with unity of CPN (UML) and Maoist Center.
Pokharel had also protested against the turn-by-turn premiership agreement between PM Dahal and Oli.
This is possibly one reason why Prachanda is not ready to accept Pokharel as the president.
"Oli does not want to hear the name of anyone other than Ishwar Pokharel as the president, he has a firm stance that Pokharel should be the president," a top Maoist leader told Nepalkhabar, "During the repeated talks with Oli, Prachanda has presented various names from UML as an alternative to Pokharel. However, Oli is not ready to hear those names.”
As per the leader, Prachanda has long ago given a clear answer that Pokharel cannot be accepted as the president.
However, despite that, Oli is pressuring him in every meeting to accept Pokharel as the presidential candidate.
“Subas Nembang from UML has been a part of discussion for the presidential candidate time and again, but Oli is adamant on only one name" said the leader who is aware of the conversation between Prachanda and Oli. Oli is stressing on implementation of the consensus forged on December 25.”
According to sources, after Oli disagreed with making Nembang the president, Prachanda presented the names of some other UML leaders to Oli. However, Oli has not accepted any other names from UML that Prachanda has suggested.
Amrit Bohora, Astalakshmi Shakya and Yuvraj Gyawali are among the UML leaders submitted as suggestions by Prachanda as the future president. The leader added, “However, Oli does not seem ready to make these leaders as presidential candidates.”
Bohora, Shakya and Gyawali were all close to Madhav Nepal in the conflict within the UML before the split. Before the UML split last year, they supported Nepal till the end. However, when Nepal split the party and formed the CPN (Unified Socialist), they left Nepal and remained in UML led by Oli.
Prachanda also considered it natural that Oli was not ready to make Bohora, Shakya and Gyawali presidential candidates because Nepal was close to UML before the split. However, Prachandais taken aback to see Oli refusing Nembang’s name for the presidential candidate.
"It is clear that Bohora, Shakya and Gyawali are not Oli's pocket leaders. It is natural that Oli does not want to make them candidates because they make decisions based on their discretion rather than pressure," said the Maoist leader, who did not want to be named, "but Nembang, who supported Oli even during the internal conflict of NCP raises suspicion of Oli’s intention since the latter refuses to accept even Nembang as the presidential candidate.”
"They did not want to make Nemwang the president because they suspected that he would not do as he said," the leader added, "Oli wanted a president who would not act on the basis of conscience, but a 'rubber stamp' like Ishwar Pokharel and give wrong advice." There is no reason for the Maoists to accept such a person as president.
Prachanda has even offered Oli to become the president after not being able to reach an agreement on the presidential candidate even in repeated conversations. However, Oli also rejected this proposal of Prachanda.
“What could be the reason behind putting forth only Ishwar Pokharel as the presidential candidate and refusing even he himself to take the presidential helm?” The top Maoist leader said, “The speaker is choosing people in his favor. It is clear that after the presidential election, Oli will overthrow the incumbent government and become the prime minister himself and hence, he is firm on making Ishwar Pokharel the president.”
It is not difficult to understand that PM Dahal proposed Oli to become the president, knowing the risks involved in making Pokhrel the president. However, since Oli is emphasizing Pokhrel, Prachanda is now looking for the second option.
