KATHMANDU, June 12: While the major political parties are eyeing electoral alliances with the two Madhes-based parties, these two parties have been working at alliances between themselves.
Party leaders said that the Upendra Yadav-led Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) and Bijay Gachchhadar-led Nepal Loktantrik Forum (NLF) have already entrusted their respective local committees to work out alliances with one another.
“We are open for election alliance with Nepali Congress (NC) or the Maoist Center but our priority is NLF. We have already entrusted the local units of the party with authority to forge alliance with the parties that have a similar agenda,” said FSFN Chief Whip Shivaji Yadav.
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He further said that the party was planning an election alliance with Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN). But following the RJPN’s decision to boycott the local polls, FSFN is planning an alliance with NLF. However, the party is against any alliance with CPN-UML or Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), party leaders said.
General Secretary of NLF Ram Janam Chaudhary said the party also prefers an alliance with FSFN in the upcoming local polls. “So far we prefer an alliance with FSFN . We already have an understanding with it and homework is underway for alliances among various local units,” said Chaudhary.
The two parties believe that an alliance between FSFN and NLF will be easy to manage, because FSFN has its stronghold mostly in Province-2 and NLF in Province-5. The two parties are in competition only in Sunsari, Morang and Saptari districts, according to the party leaders.
Both Yadav and Chaudhary said their parties have received alliance proposals from NC and the Maoist Center. However, they have not decided on any alliance among local units so far as they fear that any alliance with NC and the Maoists would backfire at the grassroots.
“We struggled long and hard against the major political parties for constitution amendment. Getting into bed now with those same parties has become difficult for us,” said a FSFN leader requesting not to be named. He however said that an alliance with NC and the Maoists is likely in some places as those two parties did register an amendment bill to address their demands.
NC and the Maoist Center believe that it will be easy for them to run their election campaigns and garner support in Madhes if they forge alliance with Madhes-based political parties. Major political parties have faced obstructions from the Madhes-based parties while holding party activities in various districts in Province 2 .
“Our party has decided on forging election alliances with ruling parties in the upcoming elections. But we are ready for alliance with FSFN as well since we have a common agenda,” said Maoist Center Spokesperson Pampha Bhusal. She also said that the party has forged an alliance with UML as well in some areas, keeping the local agenda in mind. “We have authorized local party committees to make alliances with any party based on the agenda, besides the alliances in national politics.”
NC leader Mahendra Yadav said that the party has been planning alliances with two Madhes-based parties mainly in the East-West Highway area. “Our party is strong enough to contest the election alone in the core Madhes area. But we are planning alliances with FSFN and NLF for the highway areas,” he said.
