CPN (Unified Marxist Leninist) chairman Jhala Nath Khanal arrives at parliament in Kathmandu yesterday, to file for candidacy for the prime minister’s election slated for today
In a surprise twist to Nepal’s deadlocked prime minister election saga, a bloc of regional parties from the Terai plains decided to join the fray set for today, making the 17th round of prime minister’s election a four-cornered battle.
Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachhedar, who is also the physical planning and works minister, strode into parliament yesterday minutes before the 4pm deadline for filing nominations ended, staking his claim to the top executive post that has been lying vacant since July.
Gachhedar said he will be fighting today’s election as the representative of four Terai or Madhesi parties, who together account for 82 MPs in the 601-member house.
“I am sure we will make headway with the support of the smaller parties,” Gachhedar said after filing his nomination.
The surprise move came after the Madhesi parties held an emergency meeting yesterday to decide their strategy. The bloc had been in the past wooed by the three major parties in the fray but decided to stay neutral after a leaked audio tape showed up the Maoists as trying to buy the votes of Madhesi MPs.
Except for the first Madhesi contender, the other contestants remain the same as last year’s.
Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda rode roughshod over the murmured dissent in his own party to stake his claim once again, ignoring last year’s debacle when the horse-trading scandal forced him to exit from the race after seven fruitless rounds.
The ruling communists, despite a feud within themselves, yesterday formally proposed the name of party chief Jhalanath Khanal as their candidate.
Khanal had to throw in the towel soon after the elections started last year due to the infighting in his own party but took revenge by ordering his MPs to abstain from voting in the subsequent rounds.
He was recently slapped in public by a protestor who blamed politicians like him for the protracted crisis that threatens to derail the new constitution and peace process.
The fourth contestant is former deputy prime minister Ram Chandra Poudel, who fought 16 rounds of election last year from the Nepali Congress party without being able to win majority support.
Though Poudel’s nomination this time was opposed by another leader from his own party, former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba, the latter’s bid was nipped by party chief Sushil
Koirala. IANS