Kathmandu, January 19
Don’t get surprised if incumbent Bidya Devi Bhandari and Nanda Bahadur Pun get reelected as President and Vice-President respectively.
Negotiations held between the left alliance constituents–CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre–which hold a comfortable majority in Parliament as well as the electoral college–so farare heading to reelecting Bhandari and Pun to the top positions.
Bhandari was the UML Vice-Chairperson and Pun a central leader of the Maoist Centre before their elections around two years ago.
Recently, Bhandari hosted a dinner for Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal whereas Pun went to UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli’s residence in Balkot today on the pretext of knowing Oli’s health status. Oli was back to Kathmandu just yesterday from a followup medical trip to Bangkok.
Both the meetings have been considered the state officials’ lobbying for the reelection.
It is almost certain that UML Chairman Oli will be elected the Prime Minister. Who will become the House of Representatives is not sure yet.
It has been learned that the Maoist Centre is demanding the position of Speaker. Some source, however, claim that the party wants to get its senior leader Ram Bahadur Thapa elected to the National Assembly and become the Chairperson of upper House. In this case, the UML may get the chance to lead the lower House.
The UML and the Maoist Centre will get the key positions on 65:35 ratio, according to the leaders involved in the negotiation.
