Nepali Congress fields Poudel for PMs post

The Nepali Congress,the second largest party in the Constituent Assembly,decided to field parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel as its prime ministerial candidate on Saturday as the House gears up for election of its leader on July 21....

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The Nepali Congress,the second largest party in the Constituent Assembly,decided to field parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel as its prime ministerial candidate on Saturday as the House gears up for election of its leader on July 21. However,other political parties are undecided on the issue whether to support or oppose

The Nepali Congress,which has 120 members in the Constituent Assembly,would need the support of at least 281 members from other parties.

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) has so far failed to secure assurance of 63 members from outside.

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That reduces chances of the UCPN-M chief Prachanda contesting for the post,but we might still consider fielding someone from our party, a standing committee member of the UCPN-M told The Sunday Express.

Poudel will now have to depend more on non-Maoist parties for support.

Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Nepali Congress general secretary K B Gurung respectively proposed and seconded his candidature,ending speculation that were not willing to accept Poudel as their prime ministerial candidate.

Meanwhile,the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) has not yet decided to back Poudel as party chairman Jhalnath Khanal is said to be exploring a UCPN-M and UML government,which will together have 348 members.

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We will not allow the UCPN-M to head the government under no circumstances, said K P Oli,senior leader of the UML.

In case members fail to decide on a leader,Madhav Nepal,who resigned from the PMs post on July 1,will continue as caretaker Prime Minister. The next round of election will be deferred by a couple of weeks.