Miffed, Maoists not to form Govt

The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists CPN-M on Tuesday declared that it would not be forming the Government in the country and would rather sit in the Opposition.

The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists CPN-M on Tuesday declared that it would not be forming the Government in the country and would rather sit in the Opposition.

The decision of the party came in wake of the defeat of its presidential candidate Ramraja Prasad Singh. This amounts to withdrawing its earlier claim to form the Government as it had emerged as the single largest party in the Constituent Assembly for which elections had been held in April.

8220;The foreign forces, their local puppets, forces of feudalism and status quoists have joined hands together against the Maoists forming the Government,8221; CPN-M chief Prachanda said. 8220;After our defeat in the presidential poll, we do not see the objective basis to stake the claim to form the Government,8221; he added.

But senior leaders of the Maoist party said that they are still trying to forge an alliance with at least one of the major parties, so that it can muster simple majority to form the Government. 8220;It is as much a failure of our own leadership than our policy,8221; a prominent Maoist leader said signaling all is not well within the Maoist party.

For him, Prachanda8217;s policy of 8216;using and exposing8217; other parties cost him very dear, and 8216;his credibility is on the wane8217;.

Maoist-backed candidate Ramraja Prasad Singh had lost to Rambaran Yadav, joint candidate of the Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist CPN-UML and the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum.

As per the alliance, while the President8217;s post was bagged by the Congress, post of Vice-President went to the Forum. The UML will be getting the Speaker8217;s post when the election takes place on July 24. That means Maoists will have to work in a hostile environment 8212; with all the key posts going to the alliance if it formed the Government.

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Yadav is expected to accept the resignation of G P Koirala as the Prime Minister on Wednesday and then set in the motion the process of forming the new Government.