By Our Reporter
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is leaving for India on an official visit on Friday.
The Prime Minister is paying the official visit to India at the invitation of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister will be accompanied by his spouse Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is his second foreign trip after assuming office in July last year. Earlier, Deuba had been to the UK in October last year.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Narayan Khadka, other senior Ministers, Secretaries and officials of the Government of Nepal will accompany the PM.
During the visit, Prime Minister is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India.
The Prime Minister will hold delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at Hyderabad House on Saturday.
The Prime Minister of India will host a Luncheon in honour of Prime Minister Deuba and the delegation.
The External Affairs Minister, as well as National Security Advisor of the Government of India, will call on Prime Minister Deuba.
The Prime Minister will use the opportunity of his visit to address a gathering of business leaders in New Delhi.
The Prime Minister will return to Kathmandu on Sunday, April 3 after a trip to Vanarashi.
NC decides to forge an election alliance
At a time when the Nepali Congress leaders were divided for and against the election alliance, party president and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has succeeded to pass the proposal of forging an alliance during elections through the party central working committee meeting that concluded on Tuesday.
In the central working committee meeting, the majority of the members and leaders voiced for an alliance while Shekhar Koirala, vice president Dhanraj Gurung and general secretaries duo Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma opposed the idea of forging an alliance.
Deuba wants to forge an alliance with the ruling parties fearing that if NC does not forge an alliance, Maoist chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal could forge a similar alliance with the UML as in the 2017 general elections. Again, Deuba does not want to deceive Madhav Kumar Nepal and Dahal, because the two leaders had supported him to become Prime Minister in July last year.
As Deuba enjoys a majority in the party’s central working committee, his proposal for the alliance was approved on Tuesday.
The four-day Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of the party concluded on Tuesday, deciding to forge an election alliance with the ruling coalition parties as per need and local situation.
After the meeting, Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, NC spokesperson, informed us that the CWC meeting decided to forge an election alliance with the ruling partners as per the need and local situation.
“But, an appropriate mechanism will be formed for the places where the election alliance will be required,” the NC spokesperson said, adding, “The party would adopt standards as per the party statute while selecting candidates for the local level election.”
While Deuba and even Ram Chandra Paudel think that UML is still strong in the rural areas, leaders close to Dr. Koirala argues that communists won’t vote for NC. They term such alliance as unholy. If the leaders close to Koirala revolt against the alliance, NC may again suffer defeat.
Again, Maoist Centre boss Dahal may not contest an election unless he is assured of his victory. He can develop an alliance with Oli and NC may again suffer a defeat as in the 2017 elections. Thus, Deuba wants to forge an alliance. Now with NC deciding to forge an electoral alliance, Madhav Kumar Nepal must have been happy, because without the alliance he would not succeed to make the presence of his party.
However, UML chair KP Oli has been challenging alliance partners, claiming that the UML will easily defeat the alliance leaders.
But the reality is otherwise. If the ruling alliance forge an electoral alliance, the UML is likely to suffer defeat worse than the NC faced in 2017. But Oli is not ready to accept this.
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