“The UML should have supported the NC but it did not,” said Koirala. “What should I term the UML´s backing off--deception or something else?”[break]
Koirala said the NC was optimistic that the UML would back its prime ministerial candidate Ram Chandra Paudel as the NC had earlier supported the UML-led government.
Koirala also claimed that the NC already knew the Maoists would support UML candidate Jhalanath Khanal if it failed to form government under its own leadership. “We already knew the strategy of the Maoists,” he said. “Our guess turned out to be true in the end.”
Koirala, who arrived in Pokhara to take part in the eighth general convention of the Democratic Lawyers´ Association, said that the NC would not join a Khanal-led government. He said the NC would stay in opposition and support the new government in taking the peace process to a logical end.
“We decided to support Khanal´s government on the basis of merit and demerit while remaining outside it,” he said. “We will support the government for its good deeds and protests its wrong decisions.”
Koirala also alleged that the Maoists were trying to impose totalitarianism in the guise of a UML-led government. “The Maoists will come to an end if the party go against the democracy wave,” he said.
He challenged the Maoists to capture the state. “The king also tried to capture the state with the help of the army. But he failed miserably,” he said. “The Maoists will face the same fate if they try state capture.”
President Koirala said the NC will adopt a ´wait and see´ policy on whether the newly-elected prime minister would be able to conclude the peace process while safeguarding democracy. He said that the NC decided to stay in opposition to safeguard democracy.
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