KATHMANDU, Dec 24: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has urged the leaders of parties that comprise Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) to become flexible to find common prime ministerial candidate even from outside the Alliance.
Dahal floated the proposal at a meeting of the Alliance, which is comprised mostly of ruling parties, on Sunday.[break]
"Our priority is obviously to transform the present government into a national consensus coalition and the second option is to seek an alternative candidate from within the Alliance," Minister for Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation Eknath Dhakal quoted Dahal as saying at the meeting. Dahal even categorically said that UCPN (Maoist) Vice-Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, Chairman of MPRF-Democratic Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar and Chairman of Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party, Mahantha Thakur, can be possible candidates from within the alliance.
But he also made it clear that Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML would not accept the candidates from the ruling coalition at any cost. "Therefore, we have no option but to be open about accepting a candidate from outside the Alliance," Dahal said at the meeting. "What we can do before accepting a candidate from outside our coalition is to make the candidate commit on crucial agendas such as republican system, federalism, secularity and inclusiveness."
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who was present at the meeting, had said that further discussions on the issue of new prime ministerial candidate were necessary as there was no possibility that the opposition parties would reach any agreement within few days.
"The president is leaving for India tomorrow [Monday]. We can hold further discussions on the matter," a leader quoted the prime minister as saying.
Dahal´s efforts come at a time when he is said to have shown willingness to accept NC President Sushil Koirala as a consensus prime ministerial candidate from the opposition alliance. Prime Minister Bhattarai, meanwhile, is firmly against Koirala´s candidacy.
Bhattarai and his camp within the ruling UCPN (Maoist) have been lobbying against Koirala terming him anti-federalist and anti-CA leader.
At the meeting, United Madhesi Democratic Front (UDMF), the alliance of ruling Madhes-based parties, floated a nine-point proposal that was endorsed by the Front´s meeting on Saturday. The Front has taken a three-pronged strategy. The governing Front´s first priority is to transform the present coalition into national consensus government. Second option is to find alternative prime ministerial candidate from within the ruling Alliance. Thirdly, the Front keeps the option open for seeking prime ministerial candidate from outside the ruling coalition provided such a leader accepts the Front´s conditions.
Also, a separate meeting of 14 fringe political parties came up with a five-point proposal with regard to formation of new government and ending the ongoing political deadlock. The proposal was later floated at the Alliance´s meeting.
The small parties repeated the same first two options as their priorities on the issue of government formation.
As a third option, the fringe parties are for appointing a leader as prime minister who can garner support of the majority political parties represented in the dissolved Constituent Assembly.
They want that all the political parties represented in the erstwhile Assembly be included in the election government. Failing to reach any conclusion, the Alliance leaders decided to hold next round of meeting on Monday.
"We will take a decision based on the three separate proposals floated by UCPN (Maoist), UDMF and 14 parties," Alliance´s Spokesman Prem Bahadur Singh told Republica.