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Maoists agree to lead government

KATHMANDU: The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has decided to lead the next government. President Ram Baran Yadav has given the party a week’s time to form the government.

“In our lead, we’ll try to form a national government of consensus,” said party spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Friday. “If no consensus is gathered, we’ll opt for a majority government. If it doesn’t happen either, we’ll work to form a minority government,” he added.

After Mr. Yadav invited them to form the government, the Maoists had sped up the process of consultation, following which, the party’s central committee’s meeting on Friday came up with the three alternatives as espoused by Mr. Mahara.

He, however, said if none of the alternatives worked, the Maoists would prefer to stay in the opposition. Earlier, the Maoists had said they would join the government only if they were allowed to stay in power for two years and demanded that a no-confidence motion should not be moved against their government until the Constitution is drafted.

Though the Maoists have said they would work towards forming a government based on consensus, the other parties think this is unlikely. CPN (UML) general-secretary Jhalanath Khanal told The Hindu: “It’s very difficult to forge consensus among the 25 parties [of the Constituent Assembly]. At most, efforts could be made to build consensus among the four parties [the Maoists, Nepali Congress, UML, and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum].”

However, the Maoists are against the present NC-UML-MJF alliance and have reiterated the alliance should be broken if they are to take the lead in the new government. On Thursday, MJF chairman Upendra Yadav said the Maoists should join the alliance. Mr. Mahara, on the other hand, said the parties need to move ahead to form a new alliance until the Constitution is drafted.

“Their stance is an indirect way to stop us from forming [the] government,” he said, adding: “Our effort would be to form a government of consensus but if that does not happen, we have another option to form a majority government.”

Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress (NC), which had earlier said it would stay in the opposition, might join the Maoists, if a national government is formed. NC spokesperson Arjun Narsingh K. C. told The Hindu: “If they withdraw their precondition [to be allowed to stay in power for two years], and gather national consensus, we could join the government.”

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