It is still almost a month to go for the Constituent Assembly to come into existence as the percentage of votes each party will poll would be known only in about 10 days from now, and each party would be nominating its member to fill up the 335 seats under the proportional representation (PR) system.

Maoists, convinced that they will secure an equally impressive share of votes under the PR system, have already begun consultation with the losers, the Nepali Congress and the UML, about forming a coalition government under their leadership. But the UML has already decided not to join such a government, which clearly goes against the earlier consensus that the present coalition arrangement needs to survive for at least the coming 10 years.

The Nepali Congress headed by G.P. Koirala is also likely to follow suit, as a majority of the central committee members now blame the home ministry and the election commission’s leniency towards many incidents of physical intimidation of political rivals and terrorisation of voters by the Maoists as one reason for their defeat. Leading the charge is G.P. Koirala’s daughter Sujata Koirala, a minister as well as central committee member of the party, who lost the poll.

While the allegation is not without foundation, the mainstream parties in Nepal need to be more magnanimous towards the victory of the Maoists, and the causes that underlie it. The country and its ordinary people, with an average per capita annual income of 225 US dollars, want peace to prevail, and their personal security and safety guaranteed. The victory of the Maoists, who unleashed terror and violence as well as the killing of more than 13,000 people during the insurgency, was perhaps the best guarantor of that collective desire.

... contd.