Ram Chandra Poudel is set to become Nepal’s next president after being backed by eight political parties on Saturday, but development could bring down Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s fragile two-month-old government of ‘Prachanda’, which is poised to sink the Himalayan nation. Could Once again in political trouble
Poudel, a senior leader of the main opposition Nepali Congress, was supported by eight political parties, including the CPN-Maoist Center of Prime Minister Prachanda, who sidelined the candidate of its coalition partner KP Sharma Oli to support his candidacy.
Paudel will contest the March 9 presidential election against CPN-UML’s Subas Nembang, which could change the power equation in the country.
Poudel (78) and Nembang (69) filed their candidature on Saturday.
Paudel’s candidature was proposed by Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Unified Socialist) President Madhav Kumar Nepal, Maoist Center Senior Vice President Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Janata Samajwadi Party’s Federal Council President Ashok Rai and Janmat Party’s Abdul Khan .
His candidature was supported by Loktantrik Samajwadi Party President Mahant Thakur, Congress Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka, Civil Liberation Party President Ranjita Shrestha, Rashtriya Jan Morcha President Chitra Bahadur KC and Maoist Center Hitraj Pandey.
Paudyal’s victory in the presidential election is almost certain with the support of eight political parties.
The tenure of the current president Bidya Devi Bhandari will end on March 12. The presidential election has put a serious question mark over the future of the ruling coalition of seven parties.
Parliamentary elections were held in November last year, but no party got a majority, leading to a coalition government led by Prachanda. Nepal has seen political turmoil over the years as no single party has been successful in providing a stable government.
The 68-year-old CPN-Maoist center leader Prachanda was sworn in as prime minister for the third time on December 26 last year after he dramatically walked out of the Nepali Congress-led pre-poll alliance and joined hands with the opposition. Leader Oli.
Prime Minister Prachanda’s party, which contested the November 20 parliamentary and provincial elections as an ally of a five-party coalition led by the Nepali Congress, refused to offer Prachanda either of the two key posts – president or prime minister. left the alliance after ,
Prachanda then forged an alliance with the CPN-UML to form the government.
Oli has claimed that while supporting Prachanda’s claim for the post of Prime Minister last year, it was agreed that the post of President would go to a member of his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) party.
But when the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the general election with 89 seats, voted for Prachanda during a trust vote on 10 January, the new prime minister changed his tone and called for a president to be elected based on national consensus, Which Oli rejected outright. The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.
Prime Minister Prachanda suffered another setback on Saturday when the National Democratic Party announced on Saturday that it would pull out of the government because of Prachanda’s support to Paudel.
Four ministers from the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), including party chairman and deputy prime minister and energy minister Rajendra Lingden, who was part of the coalition government, also resigned.
Both the parties are yet to make an official announcement of withdrawing support from the coalition government.
If he does so, Prachanda will have to win a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, within a month.
The total number of electors for the election of the President is 882, including 332 members of the Federal Parliament and 550 members of the Provincial Assemblies of the seven provinces.
The vote weightage of a federal MP is 79 while that of a provincial assembly member is 48.
The term of office of the President shall be five years from the date of election and a person can be elected to the office of the President only for two terms.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)