PM: Have not promised support to Oli

KATHMANDU, Oct 9: Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has told his party's central working committee members that he had never promised to support CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli's prime ministerial bid.

Koirala while addressing the CWC meeting of Nepali Congress (NC) on Thursday said that the understanding reached with the UML was for changing the government leadership after promulgation of the new constitution and not for electing Oli as prime minister.


"The issue had been discussed at the time. But I never gave word to support him. We had only agreed to change the leadership," NC CWC member Arjun Joshi quoted the prime minister as saying at the meeting. Koirala said this after some of the leaders sought his response about the reports that said he had promised to support UML candidate for prime minsiter after the completion of his term.

Koirala's clarification comes at a time when UML leaders have publicly claimed that the UML had supported Koirala on condition that NC would also support Oli' prime ministerial bid after the promulgation of the new constitution.

Oli along with other UML top leaders on Thursday afternoon visited the prime minister's official residence at Baluwatar, where the NC meeting was underway, to hand over the UML's letter to Koirala. The letter sought NC support for Oli's prime ministerial bid.

While submitting his letter to Koirala, Oli said he sought NC's support based on past agreements.

While airing their views at the meeting, most of the NC CWC members said that NC itself should lead the new government. All the leaders at the meeting except for a few suggested to the party leadership to take initiatives to form a national consensus government under its leadership.

However they were not unanimous on which NC leader should head the new government. Some demanded that an election be held to pick new parliamentary party leader in the changed context.

Gopal Man Shrestha, Chandra Bhandari, Bal Krishna Khand, Prakash Sharan Mahat and Ambika Basnet were among those demanding new election for parliamentary party leader.

In 2014, Koirala became parliamentary party leader by defeating Sher Bahadur Deuba with a slim margin. As per the NC party statute, a leader must be the party's parliamentary party leader to be the candidate of prime minister.

Koirala, Deuba and party vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel are aspirants for the post. At the meeting, Deuba sought the prime minister's view about who should lead the new government from the party.

But, Paudel clearly demanded that he should be the party's official candidate and that the meeting take a decision to make him the candidate. "Most of the CWC members are for NC leading the new government and the meeting will take its decision accordingly on Friday," said CWC member Ajay Chaurasiya.

However, some of the leaders including Krishna Sitaula, Dhanaraj Gurung, Badri Pandey, Chandra Bhandari and Pradeep Paudel said the party should support UML candidate for prime minister if the NC leaders had given word to the UML.

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