April 13, 2008
Communists Mull Quitting Government
after Nepal Poll Rout By Sudeshna
Sarkar
Kathmandu
Routed from the capital and smarting under a humiliating defeat in
the historic constituent assembly election, Nepal's largest
communist party Sunday began mulling quitting the coalition
government, saying it had lost the rationale to remain in power.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), which
once led the government in the 1990s and was the second largest
party in parliament before the Maoist guerrillas ended their armed
revolt and joined mainstream politics, faced its worst defeat ever
in Thursday's election, with most of their top leaders losing.
By Sunday afternoon, though the UML had clawed back to second
position after the Maoists, it had won only 15 of the 90 seats for
which the results were declared, the Maoists having swept 49.
Though two other Left parties, the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party
and the Jana Morcha Nepal, captured three more seats, taking their
total tally of 18 ahead of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's
Nepali Congress, once the biggest party in parliament, the
communist's loss was all the more crushing with the defeat of its
top leaders.
UML chief and former deputy prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal lost
in both constituencies he contested from, and all UML ministers in
the Koirala cabinet either lost or were flagging behind.
A chastened Nepal Sunday officially announced his resignation as
chief of the routed party.
Holding the first press conference since the elections began, Nepal
also said there was no rationale in his party remaining in the
coalition government.
Though Maoist chief Prachanda has been trying to allay fears about a
Maoist landslide victory, saying his party would continue to work
with the coalition government till a new constitution is written,
there is apprehension that he would come under pressure from his own
party cadre to form a new government, especially if the former
rebels capture absolute majority.
The standing committee of the UML said it would meet later Sunday to
decide if it would quit the coalition government.
It the UML exits from the government, it is likely to trigger a
Nepali Congress' pullout as well.
The communists' defeat is seen as due to people's anger with their
vacillation and jockeying for power.
They joined the government following King Gyanendra's sacking of the
elected prime minister in 2002 and Nepal lobbied for the post of
premier.
After they left the government to join the Nepali Congress-led
protests against the king's interference, the communists often
attacked their own allies and criticised government decisions while
being part of the ruling coalition.
Last year, they sided with the Maoists to bring pressure on Koirala
into abolishing monarchy but failed to cement the alliance during
the polls when miscalculation made them spurn the Maoists and decide
to fight the polls on their own.
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