"The office bearers have not decided to lend support to the UML in case we fail to lead the government, nor do they have the authority to take such a momentous decision,” Bhattarai told Republica on Tuesday evening. [break]
Earlier in the day, while briefing journalists about the decision of the top office bearers, another Maoist vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha had stated that the party would push till Tuesday for a Maoist-led broad coalition and if the Maoists failed in that endeavor, they would back UML Chairman Khanal to be the next prime minister.
The Maoist vice-chairman added that the politburo meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning would take all the decisions including who should be the party´s candidate.
Ruling out the possibility of the Maoists backing the UML, Bhattarai stated that the Maoists would not field any “dummy candidate”.
“Either Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal or I will be the party´s prime ministerial candidate,” he clarified.
However, Shrestha defended his statement and said he did not mean anything different than Bhattarai. “Our decision was that we should lead a coalition including as many political parties as possible. If we fail, we will support a progressive force to push the agenda of secularism, republicanism, federalism and forward-looking changes. In this context, it is the UML,” he said.
If the Maoists field Bhattarai as prime ministerial candidate, it is likely to create a new power equation with the Madhes-based parties backing him and lead to a Maoist majority government, or possibly a Maoist-led consensus government.
Heated dispute likely at politburo Tuesday
Party leaders close to Bhattarai would vociferously demand at the politburo meeting Tuesday that the party bring forward Bhattrai as an alternative to Dahal as the party´s prime ministerial candidate.
“We will demand that the party immediately name Bhattarai as prime ministerial candidate as the chairman could not garner consensus behind his name,” said Maoist politburo member Devendra Poudel.
“Without the Maoists leading the government, the peace process and constitution drafting could not be completed. So Bhattarai could be the figure acceptable to all the parties to head a consensus government,” he added.
There is a power tussle in the Maoist party between Dahal and Bhattarai. Leaders close to Bhattarai say Dahal is playing all sorts of games not to let Bhattarai become prime minister and so he is for backing Khanal. “The country would already have seen a consensus government had the chairman decided to make Bhattarai prime minister,” said another politburo member, requesting anonymity.
However, leaders close to Dahal say that the party cannot name the prime ministerial candidate at the politburo meeting.
“We will name another prime ministerial candidate only if other political parties are ready to support us to lead the government,” said Maoist politburo member Shakti Basnet.
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