Ruling coalition endeavoring to thrash out differences on seat sharing even today

KATHMANDU: Leaders of the ruling coalition will endeavor to finalize the allocation of seats today by narrowing down the differences among the five-party partners.

The leaders are scheduled to meet and thrash out the differences among them.

Leaders of the five parties have intensified efforts to finalize the allocation of seats for the November 20 elections.

On Friday, Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda claimed that the ruling coalition parties were “close to agreement” on seat distribution.

According to him, the allocation of seats would be done in such a way that it would be acceptable to all the parties in the ruling alliance.

Prachanda said the distribution of seats would do justice to all the parties.

According to him, although seats would not be allocated as per the demand in the alliance, they would be distributed in such a way that the existence of all is accepted.

The leaders were supposed to meet on Frida afternoon. However, the meeting was postponed due to the busy schedule of Nepali Congress (NC) President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN Unified Samajbadi Party Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal.

A task force formed to finalize seat allocation has already submitted an “incomplete” report to the top leaders of the ruling alliance earlier this week.

Even though the Nepali Congress (NC) initially claimed 100 seats, it has agreed to maintain flexibility.

Likewise, the Maoist Center had claimed 60 seats, Unified Socialist 25 seats and Janata Samajbadi 25 seats.

The task force is led by Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula. Other members include NC General Secretary Gagan Thapa, Minister of Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki; and Maoist Center leaders Dev Gurung and Barshman Pun.

Likewise, Vice President Pramesh Hamal and General Secretary Beduram Bhusal from Unified Socialist, leaders Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav and Rakam Chemjong from Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal and leaders Himlal Puri and Anand Sharma from Rastriya Janamorcha are members of the task force.