KATHMANDU: A question on lips in Kathmandu is now: How bad has been this week for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, and will the Parliament ratify the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)?

The answer is: It seems that it’s been a bad week for Prime Minister Deuba as his position looks increasingly vulnerable due to his failure to convince his ruling partners to ratify MCC.

He is equally under pressure from the United States to meet the February 28 deadline as US Ambassador Randy Berry met with PM Deuba on Wednesday evening and inquired about the developments.

Interestingly, PM Deuba seemed to suffer the most difficult crisis of his tenure in the last three days and Thursday evening as the all-party meeting called to forge consensus on MCC remained indecisive.

PM Deuba knew without the support of the ruling partners, including the Maoist Center, Unified Socialist, and others, there is little prospect of getting the MCC ratified by the parliament. And if it failed, this could even collapse his government.

At Thursday’s meeting of the ruling coalition, PM Deuba was full of purpose and tried to bulldoze over other top leaders. However, if sources are to be believed, he was bulldozed instead.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Deuba urged top leaders of the ruling coalition to support him as the MCC had to be ratified by February 28.

A leader close to Baluwatar said that there’s going to be a lot of heat on Friday as well as people have been keeping close eyes on whether the MCC would be tabled in today’s meeting of the Parliament.

“It’s high time that you supported me,” a source quoted PM Oli as telling the leaders urging them to support a joint resolution in the Parliament to resolve the issues raised when it comes to the ratification of the MCC agreement.

On the other hand, Chairman of Maoist Center Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” reiterated his party’s decision to quit the government, and even vote against if an attempt was made to table the Compact in the Parliament without the consent of all ruling parties.

Prime Minister Deuba said on Thursday that ratifying the MCC from the Parliament was his topmost priority, and even urged his partymen to explicitly talk in favor of MCC.

By saying so, he was trying to give a loud and clear message that the country has made up its mind for accepting the US grant.

In the evening, he tried to tough it out himself and reached Balkot (along with his spouse Dr. Arju Rana Deuba), the residence of former Prime Minister and Chairman of the main opposition party – CPN-UML –and sought his support to ratify MCC from the Parliament.

Meanwhile, PM Deuba has to convince the Janata Samajbadi Party, which is divided on the issue, while the other three partners in the coalition are against the Compact.

A leader close to Baluwatar said that there’s going to be a lot of heat on Friday as well as people have been keeping close eyes on whether the MCC would be tabled in today’s meeting of the Parliament.