SURKHET, Dec 27:  With the formation of a seven-party alliance with CPN-UML at the center, the debate on who will be the Chief Minister of Karnali Province has started. With the new equation at the center, the Nepali Congress, which is currently leading the government in Karnali, will be the main opposition party. Competition has started between CPN (Maoist Center) and CPN-UML for the post of Chief Minister.

In the 40-member provincial assembly, there are 14 MPs from the Congress, 13 from the Maoist Center and 10 from the UML. RPP, Unified Socialists and independents have one representation each in the provincial assembly. According to the equation, the Maoist center, UML and RPP combined have 24 provincial assembly members. However, 21 MPs are enough to form the provincial government.

UML won 20 out of the 40 seats in Karnali in the first provincial assembly election and got to lead the government in Karnali. Yam Lal Kandel, who is also the in-charge of the province, made many attempts to become the Chief Minister. Kandel wanted to be the first Chief Minister of Karnali. However, in the division between the then UML and the Maoists at the center, Karnali province government leadership was given to the Maoist center and Mahendra Bahadur Shahi became the chief minister.

After the Supreme Court revived the two parties CPN (Maoist Center), the CPN-UML withdrew its support to the Shahi-led government. Kandel's dream of becoming the Chief Minister did not come true when the then UML's Madhav Kumar Nepal, four MPs close to Nepal and the Nepali Congress protected the Shahi-led government. UML is now the third power in the Karnali province assembly.

Kandel, who was deprived of being the chief minister in the first provincial parliament because of the Maoists, is hoping to become the chief minister this time with the support of the Maoists. "Even though we won 20 out of 40 seats at that time, we supported the Maoist who won 13 seats and handed over the leadership of the government," said one UML leader.

On Tuesday, the leaders of the Maoist Center and the UML held a discussion regarding the issue of the leadership of the coalition and the government. Both submitted their claims to the leadership of the government. Both the parties have not elected the leader of the parliamentary party. It is likely that Kandel from UML and Rajkumar Sharma from Rukum West from Maoist will be the leaders of their respective parliamentary parties. Bimala KC, Karnali Province President of the Maoist Center, who participated in the meeting, said that it was natural for her party to claim the leadership of the Karnali Province Government as it was a large party.

"Now we are bigger than UML in terms of numbers, Karnali is also the base area of Maoist in terms of public opinion," she said, "Therefore, we believe that Karnali should be led by Maoists." "Since the UML has not been able to lead the Karnali government so far, we should take their claims as natural," she said.

 
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