National
SSF-N, RJP-N vying for chief minister’s post
With no formal talks between the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal on government formation, both the parties are staking their claim to the post of chief minister in Province 2.With no formal talks between the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal on government formation, both the parties are staking their claim to the post of chief minister in Province 2.
The first meeting of the Provincial Assembly was held on Sunday with both the parties occupied with internal selection of different positions.
The SSF-N is holding an election of the parliamentary party leader, while the RJP-N has decided to select the leader only after finalising the statute of the parliamentary party. “We will discuss with SSF-N and finalise about the major positions,” said Rajendra Mahato, a leader of the party’s presidium, claiming that the RJP-N has not abandoned its claim on chief minister.
However, SSF-N leaders maintain that as the largest party in the provincial assembly they would not let any other parties stake their claim to chief minister, saying that they have lots of competent leaders within the party vying for the post of parliamentary party leader.
The party picked Lalbabu Raut as its parliamentary party leader. Besides Raut, six other leaders Shailendra Singh, Kaushalendra Kumar Yadav, Yogendra Raya Yadav, Prahlad Giri and Saroj Kumar Singh had filed their nomination for the post.
However, some RJP-N leaders are of the view that the top leaders should have reached out to the SSF-N to discuss issues on government formation.
Mahato, however, said the two parties would discuss about the government in a few days. As per the people’s mandate, the two Madhes-based parties that forged an electoral alliance during the federal parliament and provincial assembly polls, should form a coalition government.
UML leader Satya Narayan Mandal said with the left alliance any of the two Madhes-based parties—SSF-N and RJP-N—would have a comfortable majority to form the government. But he said they have not held formal talks on forming a provincial government since the meeting held with the Madhes-based parties in Kathmandu for the National Assembly polls fell through.