Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava has held separate meetings with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda.
Ambassador Srivastava met Prachanda at his residence in Khulamtar on Saturday afternoon and reached Baluwatar to meet Prime Minister Deuba later in the day.
In both the meetings, the Indian ambassador enquired about the possible power equation in the post-election scenario, according to sources. He also sought Prachanda and Deuba's views on the outcomes of the recently-held general elections.
An aide to Prime Minister Deuba, who is aware of the meeting, said that the Indian ambassador enquired Deuba about the new government formation. However, Deuba said that they are waiting final vote counting results. "Once vote counting results are made public, we will begin discussion on the power-sharing deal," Debua reportedly told the Indian envoy.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Deuba and Chairman of the CPN (Maoist Center) Prachanda held a meeting at the former's official residence in Baluwatar.
The heavyweights discussed the contemporary political scenario including election outcomes, according to Prachanda's secretariat.
The meeting came at a time when the vote counting is entering final stage and discussions have already started over the formation of a post-election government. It requires at least 138 seats in parliament to form the new government.
Vote counting results show that not a single party is going to have a required number of seats in parliament to form the government.
The Nepali Congress looks upbeat about keeping the existing ruling alliance. However, the ruling coalition won't have required number of seats. Hence, they should bring other fringe parties on board to secure a clear majority.
In this context, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prjatantra Party will be kingmakers in the formation of the government.
Deuba and Prachanda both have projected them as the next prime minister.
The two parties went into polls under an electoral alliance. The Congress party has emerged as the largest party with 50 seats while the CPN (Maoist) is in the distant third position with 16 seats.
CPN (Maoist Center) leaders have concluded that the electoral alliance did not really benefit them in the November 20 polls.
