By Our Reporter
Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is often portrayed as a power-hungry leader, has been surprisingly showing his unwillingness to lead the new government this time. When the rival faction within the NC, the Maoist Centre, rival UML group and even the Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal offered him the opportunity to become the Prime Minister for the fifth time, he has not taken any initiative to become PM.
Even senior party leader Ram Chandra Paudel expressed surprise for the unwillingness of Deuba to lead the government.
Although it is not known why Deuba has shown such indifference to the post of PM, it is assumed that he wants further division in the communists. If KP Sharma Oli remains in power for a few months more, he is sure to totally destroy the UML and Deuba wants further weakening of the communists so that NC could win the next elections.
Further, he also fears the unity of the communists in the initiative of foreign force if they are out of power for a long time. Moreover, it is also said that India is not willing to have him as a PM of Nepal at the moment. It is rumoured that the southern neighbour wants either continuity of Oli or Dr Baburam Bhattarai in place of Oli. As there are slim chances for Dr Bhattarai to become PM, a faction of the JSPN is willing to give continuity to Oli probably at the signal of the southern neighbour.
These factors may have discouraged Deuba to become the new PM, and he is trying to create a situation in which elections would be held at the earliest possible.
President calls all-party meeting to support PM Oli
When Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, cornered from all political parties, was finding helpless, President Bidya Devi Bhandari called an all party-meeting on Tuesday in a bid to help Prime Minister Oli. The President who acted as a shadow of PM Oli during the dissolution of the House had not called the all-party meeting.
However, the surprise all-party meeting could not be fruitful as reported by the media. Instead, leaders like Ram Chandra Paudel used the forum to ask the President why she did not call a similar meeting before dissolving the House.
When Prime Minister Oli tried to defend his move to dissolve the House, the leaders objected to him, Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre said he had not been to Sheetal Niwas to discuss the election issue while Nepali Congress vice president Bimalendra Nidhi and Maoist Centre’s Narayan Kaji Shrestha stressed the need for implementing the Court verdict.
It seemed the President called the all-party meeting at the advice of PM Oli with the hope of garnering support for fresh polls, but his plan failed. However, many still fear, PM Oli might again dissolve the House.
According to a press release issued by the President’s office after the meeting held at Sheetal Niwas, welcoming the top leaders at the event, President Bidya Devi Bhandari stressed the need for effective implementation of the constitution and strengthening of democracy in an environment where the political beauty of the country is reflected on establishing mutual dialogue, cooperation and unity among the parties.
The President thanked the leaders of all the parties for holding an all-party meeting in connection with unprecedented national unity demonstrated by the parties last May to publish a new political map covering the encroached territory of Nepal.
At the meeting, PM Oli, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and Presidents of Janata Samajwadi Party Mahanta Thakur and Upendra Yadav and leader Rajendra Mahato were present.
Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Subash Chandra Nembang, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel, senior leaders of Nepali Congress Ramchandra Paudel, Bimalendra Nidhi, Dr Shashank Koirala, Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Dev Prasad Gurung, were present.
Former Chairman of the Council of Ministers Khil Raj Regmi was also present on the occasion.
Likewise, Rastriya Prajatantra Party President Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, Chairman of Rastriya Janamorcha Chitra Bahadur KC and leader Janak Raj Sharma, leader of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Prem Suwal were also present.
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