Kathmandu, December 3
CPN-UML General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel says the new government will be formed by mid-December and it will be led by the leftist alliance of CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre as the two parties will secure majority seats in the House of Representatives.
Pokharel, however, says who will be the prime minister of new government is yet to be finalised as the two parties, which have announced to be unified after the polls, are holding discussions over the leadership model.
“We have not formally announced who will be the next PM,” he says, “But, we are in an alliance and it will be better to reach a conclusion after discussions.”
In an interview with Onlinekhabar, the leader, however, maintains whoever holds more seats among constituent parties will lead the government, hinting his party wants to field its Chairman KP Sharma Oli in the prime ministerial race.
“Whoever is leading the alliance, whose party has dominance will be the PM,” he says, adding the party decided not to formally announce the PM candidate before the polls as it might give negative impacts on partnership with other parties.
Pokharel says the alliance will win around 130 of 165 first-past-the-post seats in the House. He claims the parties would win 30-32 seats of 37 constituencies that already held voting in the first phase last week.
Meanwhile, the leader rules out speculations that the alliance between two parties will break after the polls and the Maoist Centre will go towards the Nepali Congress to form a majority government. He says the two parties are determined to unify and no force can stop it.
“I don’t think Maoist Chairman Prachanda will think in such an immature way. He has publicly said the unification will take place,” he expresses his confidences, “Yesterday, our ideology and path were different from the Maoists. Nor did we have a common goal. But, today, we are together.”
