Within 24 hours of India getting to know who would lead the new government at the center0, the protracted and tricky race for a new prime minister in Nepal also came to a virtual end on Sunday with veteran communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal getting the backing of 22 of the 24 parliamentary parties. The 56-year-old Nepal, an old boy of Goenka College in Bihar's Sitamarhi district, Sunday presented his claim to the chairman of the constituent assembly, Subhash Nembang, showing the support of 350 MPs, well ahead of the 302 he needs to win simple majority in the 601-member house. A former deputy prime minister and chief of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist (UML) for 15 years, Nepal owes his success to former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who declined the top job when it was offered to him this week by the Maoists, and wielded his still considerable clout to cobble together what now would have the semblance of an all-party government. The breakthrough came on a day the communists had suffered a severe blow 16 years ago. On this day in 1993, Madan Bhandari, the charismatic communist chief, was killed in a car crash that even today, is believed by many to have been engineered. The UML received a boost on Bhandari's death anniversary with regional party Madhesi Janadhikar Forum that held the key to power with its 53 lawmakers, decided to abandon its plan to head the government and threw its weight behind Nepal. “My first priorities would be going ahead with the peace process, drafting a new constitution in time and improving law and security,” Nepal told TNN. “My party has always enjoyed good relations with all Indian parties, including the Congress. Our relationship with India will grow stronger.” However, though Nepal has won the battle, the war is yet to be over. Even as the major parties pledged their support, the Maoists, the largest party in the house, called up a “sea of people” at the heart of the capital in an impressive show of might, where they turned their guns on Nepal, the other parties and India. Caretaker Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda dismissed Nepal, his former ally, as a “remote-controlled PM” who was under the influence of “foreign masters”. The new government, he said, was a conspiracy to derail the peace process and try to provoke his once underground party to fresh war. Nepal, in his turn, dismissed the Maoist anger. “Nepal is a democracy,” he said, “and everyone has the right to free expression as long as it is done peacefully and within law.” He also indicated that when the house convenes Monday, the majority support behind him would force the Maoists to give up disrupting its proceedings. All eyes are now on the house chairman, who Sunday promised Nepal he would start proceedings to call an election. Though the President, Dr Ram Baran Yadav, had asked for a prime ministerial election soon after Prachanda resigned on May 4, it could not be held as the Maoists kept up their blockade, vowing not to retreat till Yadav corrected his “unconstitutional” step of reinstating the Nepal Army chief they had sacked.
