The CPN-UML has agreed to hand over the government leadership to the UCPN (Maoist) soon after the budget is endorsed, multiple sources confirmed on Saturday.

Leaders of the ruling parties, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the two parties had reached “gentleman’s agreement” to this effect while signing the nine-point deal on Thursday night that had given a new lease of life to the KP Sharma Oli-led government, which was on the verge of collapse. 

The nine-point deal does not spell out anything about government change. 

A senior Maoist leader and a UML leader who worked on the draft of the deal said that an agreement on leading the government on a rotational basis was reached on Thursday, implying that the UCPN (Maoist) would be the next party to take over the government reins.

“There has also been an agreement not to make public the agreement [on UML letting UCPN (Maoist) lead the government,” said a senior leader.

 In an interview with an online, UML leader Bam Dev Gautam has hinted about such an agreement between two parties.  

“Along with a written agreement, we have reached another agreement as well,” Gautam said in the interview. 

Gautam played a key role in convincing the Maoist leaders that the current coalition should be kept intact.

During several rounds of meetings with Maoist leaders after it became apparent that the Nepali Congress was going to topple his government, PM Oli himself had proposed to offer government leadership to UCPN (M).

Senior Maoist leaders said that issues related to peace process, mainly war-era cases and land transactions, will be settled by the incumbent government. 

“We wanted a national unity government, not a majority one,” said a senior Maoist leader. “The NC was in favour of toppling the coalition government, denying it even the opportunity of bringing policy and programmes and budget,” added the leader. “But when we realised how destabilising that would be, we decided to put the brakes on negotiations with the Congress party.”

Another UML leader, who was also present in Baluwatar during Thursday night’s negotiations, said senior UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal had presented himself as the “witness” when the gentleman’s agreement was signed.

According to sources, the UML and the UCPN (Maoist) have also agreed to hold local elections by November and the latter will be at the helm at that time. 

UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, however, said that his party would lead only the consensus government, not a majority one.

• A senior Maoist leader and a UML leader say an agreement on leading the government on a rotational basis was reached on Thursday night, implying that the UCPN (Maoist) will be the next party to take over the government reins
• A senior leads says the parties have reached a deal not to make public the deal that talks about government change
• In an interview with an online, UML leader Bam Dev Gautam hints about an agreement on government change
• As per the gentleman’s agreement, local elections will be held by November and the UCPN (Maoist) will lead the government at that time