Miscellaneous
NC to pick Cabinet members, election candidates together
The Nepali Congress is working on government formation and local election candidate selection side by side.The Nepali Congress is working on government formation and local election candidate selection side by side.
A meeting of the party’s office bearers, former office bearers and senior leaders held in Sanepa on Thursday decided to pick the NC’s candidates for the second-phase local level elections in provinces 1 and 7 on Friday.
A senior NC leader told the Post that along with fixing the candidates for the remaining 483 local units, the party will hold discussion with the CPN (Maoist Centre) and other parties to form the Cabinet.
Honouring the deal reached 10 months ago with the NC of handing over power to Sher Bahadur Deuba, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal announced his resignation on Wednesday.
“We will not repeat the mistakes committed in the first-phase elections. We’ll be careful with candidate selection,” the leader said.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari has given the parties one week to form a consensus government. Since the chances of forming a national government are slim, the process to install a majority government will begin after a week.
The party has assigned outgoing ministers Bimalendra Nidhi and Ramesh Lekhak to prepare a power-sharing deal with the Maoists.
Leaders say the Maoists will be the key coalition partner while the Nepal Loktantrik Forum led by Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar is also expected to be retained in the new government as a deputy prime minister.
Since the Madhes-based parties have declined to join the Deuba-led government, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party is another likely governing ally. The new Cabinet has the challenge of passing the constitution amendment bill registered by the Dahal-led government.
There is pressure on the party leadership to retain some ministers who performed well in Dahal’s government in the new Cabinet.
In total, over two dozen new and old faces would be short-listed for Cabinet jobs, according to the leader.
On election candidate selection, the meeting authorised the respective regional election working committee to choose the hopefuls in municipalities and village councils. The district working committee decides the candidates if the regional committees fail in the job. In case of disputes, the central working committee would take up the matter.
Outgoing minister Arjun Narsingh KC said the Congress has started selecting candidates from remote areas.