With the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal preparing to join the KP Sharma Oli-led government, its relations with Madhes ally Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal seem to be troubled.
With the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal preparing to join the KP Sharma Oli-led government, its relations with Madhes ally Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal seem to be troubled.
As the SSF-N prepares to join the left alliance of the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) to form the central government, after getting the communists’ support in Province 2, leaders of the RJP-N, a coalition partner in the provincial government, say that the SSF-N has bypassed them in the power-sharing process.
RJP-N leaders are considering a struggle for constitutional amendments once the provincial governments are formed if the central government fails to do so.
“RJP-N will wait and see the developments for now. Once the task of forming
the governments is over, the party leaders are considering issuing an ultimatum to the federal government for amending the statute,” said RJP-N General Secretary Keshav Jha.
He further said that the RJP-N sticks to its demand for amending the statute to
join the government but the SSF-N is said to be ready for sharing power even with the left alliance expressing its agreement in principle to the amendment.
Around a week ago, RJP-N leaders had met top three leaders of the SSF-N—Chairman Upendra Yadav, Co-chair Rajendra Shrestha and General Secretary Ram Sahay Yadav—to discuss the developments.
After joining the Oli-led government, the SSF-N may consider inducting ministers from the left alliance to the Province 2 cabinet, Jha said.
The two Madhes-based parties won significant numbers of seats in both the provincial and federal parliaments due to their electoral alliance but SSF-N leaders claimed that the alliance had ended after the polls.
“We are a socialist party and the RJP-N a Madhes-based party,” said Co-chair Shrestha, claiming that the two parties would only have political relationship.
Though UML leaders were informally lobbying with the RJP-N to take them on board the federal government, party coordinator Mahantha Thakur said they had not received a formal invite for talks.
Since the SSF-N leads the Province 2 government, the UML-led federal government wants to take the party into confidence so that PM Oli could launch his development projects in the state. On the other hand, the SSF-N also sees challenges in meeting
the costs in the province without support from the central government.
24.12°C Kathmandu
