By Our Reporter
Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ of the Maoist Centre, Dr Baburam Bhattarai of Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal and Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress have now a single goal—to topple the present government led by KP Sharma Oli of the CPN-UML.
These three leaders and many others have a common belief that Prime Minister Oli was working against democracy and the achievements made after the 2006 April Uprising. It is evident from the unconstitutional dissolution of the House of Representatives, the introduction of ordinances and his attempts to make the parliament dysfunctional, they argued.
Moreover, Oli also has been working to centralize power on him. However, Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba looks comfortable with all the activities of the Prime Minister and is not willing to become Prime Minister by replacing Oli, because he also wants elections when the communists have been sharply divided.
Even if he happens to become the new Prime Minister, he will try to hold elections by April next year because he knows well that his party will benefit from the divided UML and communists.
In the 2018 elections, NC suffered a defeat as the CPN-UML and Maoist Centre got united. Now not only the CPN-UML and Maoist Centre have become separate parties, but the UML itself has also been divided into two factions—one led by Oli and another Madhav Kumar Nepal. As such, the rival group of UML would try to defeat another group and the votes of 2018 will be divided into three parts, and Deuba is well aware of this and wants elections at the earliest possible.
JSP with Oli, less chance for alternative government
It seems that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the leaders of the Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal are glued to end the constitution. The arch-rivals until a year ago, the JSP-N faction led by Mahanta Thakur has now emerged as the biggest supporter of PM Oli. Though it looks odd for many, it is natural for those who know well that foreign master of the two forces are now the same.
Prime Minister Oli had dared to dissolve the House of Representatives although he knew well that it was against constitution only weeks after he met Samanta Goel, chief of Raw of India, at Baluwatar, and a few days after Goel returned to New Delhi, Thakur was invited to India. This visit played key role to cement the ties between the former foes. India and JSP-N have one thing in common—they are against the Constitution.
Now when Pushpa Kamal Dahal and others want to pull down the Oli-led government, Thakur and Rajendra Mahato stand as a shield to safeguard the Oli-led government. Oli, who sabotaged the attempts made to amend the Constitution as demanded by the Madhesi leaders four years ago is now ready to meet their every demand including the release of the murder convict Resham Chaudhary. PM Oli seems ready to give up their stance to remain in power.
Hence, the attempts of the Nepali Congress and Maoists to pull down the present government and form a new one would not succeed unless the marriage between the JSPN faction and Oli gets severed.
PM Oli challenges opposition
Prime Minister and chairman of the ruling party CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli has challenged the opposition parties to topple the government.
Addressing a national gathering of the Nepal Utpidit Jatiya Mukti Samaj, which is close to the party, in the capital Monday, Prime Minister Oli said that his party would not take power through the side door. He said that all the opposition parties had the same objective against UML.
He also said that Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had caused a lot of pain to the citizens in the past and accused him of still trying to confuse the people.
Similarly, Prime Minister Oli said that the parallel activities going on in the name of the party could only be tolerated to a certain extent. “If Madhav Nepal seeks to return to the party and work then he should apologise not to me but to the people,” he said, adding, “Attacks on the party will not be accepted. A tigress only stays silent as long as her cub is not threatened. You are not the only ones who know how to expel individuals.”
Oli said that he had not reciprocated the Nepal faction’s move of expelling him from the party and had retained their membership to give them an opportunity to return to the UML.
Stating that the government had done an extraordinary job in the last three years, the Prime Minister mentioned that many development works had been carried out. “We are in a great campaign of nation-building and we must not let it falter,” he said.
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