A man of principle

But this became possible only after the two major parties—Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) defected from a three party alliance formed barely three weeks ago under the leadership of the Nepali Congress, and supported Prachanda’s candidature. Prachanda won with a comfortable margin of 351, securing 464 votes against Sher Bahadur Deuba, a Nepali Congress candidate, as 577 members cast their votes in the House. But doubts have already been raised, about whether the brute majority that Prachanda secured in the House is any guarantee of continuity.

The major parties simply took the stand that Maoists, as the single largest party in the House, must be given a chance to head the government, but it should not hope to control power disproportionate to the size of its mandate. Moreover, it banks on the support of the MJF and UML, who have contradictory approaches on issues like right to property and land, nature of federalism and independence of judiciary and freedom of the press as well as the integration of Maoist combatants in the Nepal army. MJF leader Upendra Yadav has been insisting that absorption of the armed combatants in the national army would open the floodgates for any armed group in future to make similar claim. The Nepali Congress insisted that the Maoist party should not hold the defence portfolio that will have the national army under it, as long as the 31,000-strong People’s Liberation Army, a sort of private army, was not managed.

When the Maoists refused, it chose to sit in the opposition. But with any differences among the three ruling parties likely to endanger the government, it is too early to write off Nepali Congress as a serious contender.

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