Six parties back Pushpa Kamal Dahal as next Nepal PM, says Barshaman Pun

KATHMANDU [NEPAL]: A coalition of six parties has decided to back Nepal's Maoist Center Pushpa Kamal Dahal to form the next government and become the country's Prime Minister.

"A coalition of 6 parties decide to present forward Pushpa Kamal Dahal as the Prime Minister of the next government. An agreement has been sealed. Dahal will lead the government for two and a half years and another two and half years would be led by CPN-UML," said Barshaman Pun, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center).

In the new coalition, the CPN-UML has 78, Maoist Center 32, Rastriya Swatantra Party 20, Rastriya Prajatantra Party 14, Janata Samajbadi Party 12, Janamat Party 6 and Nagarik Unmukti Party has 4 MPs in support of Prachanda. The total weightage is 166. This comes shortly after Nepal's Maoist Center decided to leave the ruling coalition, according to Nepali Congress senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel.

He quoted Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal who has said that the "coalition has lost its relevance". Confirming the decision of the Maoist Centre over the phone with ANI, Paudel said that Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda walked out of the coalition meeting on Sunday after saying that "the coalition has lost its relevance".

After he walked out of the ruling coalition meeting, which was started with the aim to reach an agreement on government formation, Prachanda met the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) president and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and held a meeting.

Confirming the news of Dahal walkout, Maoist Center's press secretary said, "Agreement hasn't been reached." After Dahal walked out, the ruling coalition meeting ended without any conclusion. "The meeting of the ruling coalition ends. No decision has been made," leaders, who were present in the meeting earlier said.

Meanwhile, Maoist Centre's General Secretary Dev Gurung threatened Nepali Congress that they would "walk out" from the coalition if the latter remained adamant on their demand to hold both the president and prime minister positions.

"If the Congress is adamant on their demand of holding the position of President and PM then there's no need for a coalition. We would simply walk out from it," Gurung told ANI over the phone on Sunday.

"This same statement was made in Saturday's meeting and is also conveyed today. We have come to the conclusion in the meeting to walk out of the coalition in case the same instance is repeated. Still, the final decision would be made by the party chairman in the meeting," he added.