The party's Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Friday entrusted the party's top three leaders--Prime Minister and party president Sushil Koirala, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel--with the responsibility of taking final decision on the prime ministerial candidacy.
They have asked the three leaders to consult other political parties while taking a final decision. A meeting between party senior leaders until late night concluded without finalizing the candidate.
However the meeting has decided to hold talks with UCPN (Maoist) and other fringe political parties seeking their support to NC's candidate, said party Joint General Secretary Purna Bahadur Khadka.
NC leader Ananda Prasad Dhungana claimed that the party will file candidacy, of one among the three top leaders, for the new prime minister on Saturday. "It will be acceptable for us (CWC members) if any of the top three leaders files candidacy for the post," he said.
Majority CWC members at the meeting suggested to the party's top leadership to propose candidacy from the party and the meeting had decided to hold talks with other parties and seek their support in favor of NC's candidate.
Stating that NC will field an NC leader for the next prime minister, party president Koirala had assured CWC members of finalizing candidate after consulting with other major political parties including the CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist) and Madhesi political parties.
Urging Koirala not to repeat himself as PM candidate, party senior leader Deuba however proposed holding parliamentary party election to pick candidate from the party. Deuba had also proposed that party should allow any leader securing majority support from other parties to contest for prime ministerial post.
Presenting himself as candidate, party vice president Paudel insisted on finalizing the candidate from the CWC meeting itself.
During the CWC meeting, party leader Bimalendra Nidhi, Dilendra Badu, Ananda Prasad Dhungana, Dil Bahadur Gharti, NP Saud and Ramesh Rijal had insisted that NC itself should file candidacy for prime ministerial post.
Accusing the CPN-UML of betraying NC in the past, the leaders had opposed the idea of supporting UML chair KP Oli for prime minister.
"Most of the leaders were of the view that NC should lead the next government to implement the constitution, address Tarai protest and accomplish the task of post-quake reconstruction in the country," said leader Nabindra Raj Joshi. Most of the leaders representing from Tarai had opined that only NC-led government can address the ongoing protests in Tarai-Madhes.
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