Less than 24 hours after the Khanal government resigned, it is clear that political parties have learned no lesson from their past mistakes. The stalemate that followed the resignation of Madhav Nepal in June 2010 is all set to repeat itself in August 2011.
Nepali Congress has made it clear that it is not willing to accept a Maoist-led government unless the later declares a clear work schedule to conclude peace process and constitution drafting. The UML and the Madhesi front agree on the NC's demand and stand by their side. Maoists, on the other hand, have declared that the schedule will be declare as soon as they have the leadership of the government.
Both the parties are rigid on their stance and there is no denial that if the situation persists, at some point in near future, there will be an attempt to elect a majority candidate for the leadership of next government. The nation will once again go through the bizarre scenes of the last year when we had 17 rounds of failed attempts to choose a prime minister.
Meanwhile, NC cannot find a consensus candidate within its own rank due to ongoing battle between Ram Chandra Paudel and Sher Bahadur Deuba. The party is buying negotiation time by putting forward conditions on Maoist candidacy. The battle for the parliamentary party leadership is so rife in NC that the party chairman Sushil Koirala has refused to take any side, fearing mutiny in the party. Koirala has declared that in case of a consensus government, Deuba will be party’s candidate but if it comes down to fighting for the post, Poudel will take the lead.
But the Maoists have aggressively been campaigning for the leadership of the next government. Maoist leaders are making media statements that only a Maoist-led unity government can kickstart the stalled peace process.
It is not sure who will lead the next government, if and when it is formed. But what we can say for certain is, the parties are going to fight tooth-and-nail for the long term political brownie to be scored for taking the peace and constitution drafting process to its logical end.
Anurag Acharya