KATHMANDU, Dec 27: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala said Wednesday that the ruling UCPN (Maoist) party´s Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal would be unacceptable as a prime ministerial candidate.
The remarks of Koirala, who has been fielded by NC, CPN-UML and other opposition parties as a common prime ministerial candidate to head the election government, has come at a time when leaders from some ruling political parties have proposed Dahal as a prime ministerial candidate.
"This is unacceptable," Koirala told reporters at his residence in Maharajgunj on Wednesday.
Lately, some leaders from the political parties, including the UCPN (Maoist), have argued that the ruling coalition should propose Dahal as an alternative prime ministerial candidate if the opposition parties continue to stand against transforming the present government into a national consensus coalition.
Koirala also ruled out any possibility of reinstating the Constituent Assembly (CA) that was dissolved in May without producing the new constitution. The CA´s tenure was extended to four years from its original two-year term.
"The issue [whether or not to reinstate CA] has already been decided. We have already decided not to reinstate the dissolved CA but to go for fresh election," said Koirala.
He argued that it was yet another tactic employed by the Maoists to confuse the public and other parties. "Maoist leaders come up with new proposals time and again to confuse the masses and cheat other political parties," he explained.
Koirala claimed that the Maoist leaders were being exposed as "untrustworthy” political force due to Maoist leaders´ constant flip-flops.
While the opposition parties have been insisting Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai´s immediate exit, the latter has repeatedly said that Koirala is unacceptable as the new prime minister.
Though Dahal is believed to be flexible on handing over the mantle to Koirala on certain conditions, leaders from some small ruling parties and a section of UCPN (Maoist) are dead against accepting Koirala, whom they have been projecting as anti-federalist.
They are for proposing alternative prime ministerial candidate from within the ruling coalition -- either Dahal or any other leader from another ruling party.
PLEASE DESIST FROM ATTACKING THE WRITER PERSONALLY AND BE RESPECTFUL TO OTHER READERS.
Please give your full name while posting your comments. This is not to stifle the free flow of comments but your full name will enable us to print the comments in our newspaper.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Copyright © Nepal Republic Media Pvt. Ltd. 2008-10.