The alliance of the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal has demanded 57 out of the 165 federal parliamentary positions, making seat-sharing difficult in the six-party “democratic” alliance spearheaded by the Nepali Congress.

According to a senior leader of the alliance, the two parties have demanded 10 seats in Province 1, 24 in Province 2, five in Province 3, two in Province 4, 10 in Province 5 and three each in Provinces 6 and 7 for federal parliament.

In provincial parliaments, the seats demanded by the two parties are 24 in Province 1, 48 in Province 2, 15 in Province 3, nine in Province 4, 22 in Province 5, six in Province 6 and seven in Province 7—131 out of the 330 provincial parliament seats in total.

This leaves the NC and the four other parties with only eight seats in Province 2 in federal parliament and 26 seats in the provincial parliament. 

According to Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav, a member of the taskforce, two representatives from the SSF-N-RJP-N alliance presented their preliminary proposal—both province wise and district wise—to NC taskforce members Bimalendra Nidhi, Purna Bahadur Khadka and Minendra Rijal on Sunday.

“They said they would study and discuss the proposal within the party and then invite us for further negotiations,” Yadav said.

“Our alliance of two parties alone can win 75 percent seats in Province 2. Hence the proposal,” said SSF-N Co-chair Rajendra Shrestha.

Representatives of parties in the alliance on Sunday held a preliminary discussion on preparing the common minimum agenda.

“We will come up with clear cut ideas on issues related to why the alliance is necessary, division of seats for the upcoming polls and others,” said taskforce coordinator Nidhi. The meeting agreed to set criteria for candidate selection among the alliance partners.