Kathmandu, March 8
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his Left Alliance partner Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ are bound by a gentlemen’s agreement to elect Bidya Devi Bhandari as President and Nanda Bahadur Pun Vice-president, it has been revealed.
A Maoist leader close to Prachanda says that the two leaders had agreed to retain Bhandari and Pun to facilitate the implementation of the new constitution. That was why, despite stiff opposition from the members of the UML standing committee, Oli was adamant that the UML field Bhandari.
Following reports of a row between the UML leaders over who gets to become the head of state, Prachanda is learnt to have told his party’s top brass that Oli was acting in accordance with an agreement with him.
Maoist leader Barsa Man Pun said that his party wanted to retain the President and the Vice-president because the country was faced with a political transition. He said that changing the President and Vice-president will add more pressure to the treasury.
It is learnt that Maoist leader Amik Sherchan wanted to contest the election for Vice-president. But Prachanda also does not want to violate the gentlemen’s agreement. That is why Prachanda has been insisting that his party retain former Maoist leader Pun as Vice-president. The CPN-Maoist Centre is to formally announce Pun’s candidacy for Vice-president in a few days.
According to Nepal’s constitution, the President and the Vice-president must not be of the same gender. That is why the process to elect the Vice-president will begin only after the President is elected.
