The meeting decided not to take any decision that may weaken the party´s relation with the Nepali Congress (NC) and other democratic forces. “The central committee meeting reaffirmed its previous decision to support NC President Sushil Koirala´s candidacy,” CC member Ghanshyam Bhusal told Republica. "The party will discuss an alternative to Koirala only if the UML, NC and other democratic parties believed that such a proposal would better help resolve the protracted deadlock.”[break]
While Nepal and some leaders close to him proposed that the party should be ready to seek an alternative candidate other than Koirala, other leaders, including KP Sharma Oli, Ishwar Pokharel and Bidya Bhandari fiercely objected to the idea saying such a move would only serve the interests of UCPN (Maoist) and weaken its alliance with NC and other democratic parties.
CC member Karna Thapa said the meeting through overwhelming majority rejected the idea of seeking an independent candidate. "The proposal was rejected because it is a ridiculous idea to assume that an independent individual can solve a crisis that the major parties couldn´t," Thapa said. "There is no point in blaming other parties since the UCPN (Maoist) is entirely to be blamed for the prolonged deadlock.”
According to leaders, while Nepal had underscored the need for seeking an alternative prime ministerial candidate to end the deadlock, another leader Bhim Rawal had argued that a retired chief justice could be the possible candidate for the prime ministerial post to head the election government.
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