Nepal Cong plans to hold out

The party’s claim comes barely an hour after the election commission announced the vote percentage and the number of seats allotted under the proportional representations system to different olitical parties.

The final electoral outcome indicates that none of he parties has got a simple majority with the Maoists tally stuck at 220 in a house of 601. The Congress has 110 members.

“G P Koirala should continue to head the government,” former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is a prominent Nepali Congress leader, said.

That the two leaders were speaking the prime minister’s mind became apparent when Koirala himself said that Nepali Congress would take the initiative for building a consensus, but chose not to answer if he will give up the leadership in the wake of the poll outcome.

“Nepali Congress will take the initiative to build a consensus,” he said at an interaction with the media on Friday.

The Congress is under pressure to sever its alliance with the Maoists following continued attack by the Maoists on its workers and leaders.