Kathmandu, Mar 29 (PTI) The Nepali Congress, the principal ruling party with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at the helm, on Tuesday decided to forge an electoral alliance with its coalition partners the CPN-Maoist Centre led by Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda” and Madhav Nepal’s CPN-Unified Socialist for the local-level elections scheduled in more than 700 local units on May 13.
The decision was taken during a CWC meeting held at the central party headquarters in Sanepa.
Deuba, 74, was sworn in as Prime Minister in July last year, with the support of Prachanda, Madhav Nepal, the Janata Samajwadi Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha.
“At the CWC meeting held today, it was decided to forge an electoral alliance with the ruling partners as per the need and given the local situation,” spokesperson of the Nepali Congress Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat said.
Deuba, who has assumed power with the backing of the two communist forces, had indicated in the past that these elections would be fought under an alliance with coalition partners.
There is resentment with this decision, with the Shekhar Koirala faction remaining adamantly against a poll alliance with any party.
Both Prachanda and Nepal have been against Deuba forging an alliance with the CPN-UML led by K.P. Sharma Oli in the upcoming local level elections.
Mahat said that the Nepali Congress has a strong base and remains on course to attain victory in the elections.
“But an appropriate mechanism will be formed in places where the election alliance will be forged as per the need,” he said.
In February this year, the Nepal government announced that the local-level elections for all the 753 local units would be held on May 13 in a single phase after a decision taken at a Cabinet meeting.
Initially, there were some ambiguities with regards to the legal and constitutional provisions of conducting local polls.
However, the Election Commission said no amendments were required in the existing laws if the local polls were held before May 19, the date when the term of the locally elected representatives would expire. PTI SBP VM VM
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.