Senior Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has rolled the dice. As race heats up for the party presidency, Deuba on Thursday publicly offered the post of parliamentary party (PP) leader, also party’s prime ministerial candidate, to his arch-rival—party’s Acting Vice-President Ram Chandra Poudel.

The post of PP leader has fallen vacant after the death of NC president and former prime minister Sushil Koirala.

Deuba’s offer comes at a time when Poudel and other leaders are busy exercising influence to become the official candidate for the post of party president from the establishment faction.

“It would be ideal if Ram Chandraji becomes our prime minister,” Deuba told reporters at a press conference organised at his residence in Budhanilkantha on Thursday.

Poudel, however, declined the offer, just hours after Deuba’s press conference.

“I am not going to give in to any kind of greed or temptation,” said Poudel at a hastily organised press conference at his office in Anamangar. Poudel stopped short of announcing his candidacy for the top job, but said his candidacy would be announced “with a clear roadmap to bolster party’s position in national politics”.

Deuba’s offer to Poudel could be one of the most important gambles in his political career or one of the most tactfully taken calculated risks. If Poudel rises to Deuba’s bait and Deuba succeeds in his effort to become the party president, he has to let Poudel, as PP leader, lead the government in case the NC manages to stitch together a coalition in case the incumbent government falls.

Given the recent history of Nepal, particularly since the reinstatement of democracy, another government cannot be ruled out, as none of the governments since 1990 have completed their full term in office.

Flanked by his two key lieutenants—Bimalendra Nidhi and Purna Bahadur Khadka—Deuba started with ruing the absence of former prime minister and NC president Girija Prasad Koirala, with whom he claimed he had reached a “gentlemen’s agreement” to inherit party’s mantle. “Girijababu and I united the party. An agreement was reached at that time that I would succeed him,” said Deuba.

“But he passed away and I am the only remaining party of the agreement.”  Deuba presented a long of list comparisons to justify why he towered over other contenders.

He even went on to draw a parallel with the late BP Koirala, the oldest among the Koirala patriarchs, saying that he was the second leader to face dismissal at the hands of the  kings. In 2005, citing incompetence, then king Gyanendra had removed Deuba from office. Deuba also refuted allegations that he had “handed democracy over to the palace’. Deuba claimed that as the party president he would play a proactive and decisive role. “I won’t let the party become hostage of indecision like in the past, which often led to failures in many an instance when it came to key appointments—like in the case of appointment of the chief executive officer of the National Reconstruction Authority,” said Deuba.