Dahal’s Dilemma

Kathmandu: Puspa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, who was better known for his quick and charismatic decision ability in the Nepali politics, had jumped into the election fray with a confidence to win at least 160 seats towards the first-post-the-past electoral system.  However, Prachanda has been caught into a big dilemma regarding his next move due the unexpected and shocking election results that threw the party in third position from the first position of the erstwhile Constituent Assembly. UCPN (Maoist) chairman Dahal quickly held a press conference to denounce the results claiming massive vote rigging and demanded a halt in vote counting to review the whole election process. He even announced of boycotting the CA if his demands were not met. However, Dahal’s hurried reaction towards the election has now proven to be a problematic to him.  With the immense pressure from the international community and the opposing voices within the party to respect the people’s mandate manifested in the voting results, Dahal is now in a quandary desperately seeking for the ‘face-saving’ solution. The confusion that either to withdraw the earlier decision to boycott or continue with it is haunting Dahal, said a source close to Dahal. Source added that if he withdraws the decision it would expose his weakness of decision making, but continuing with the decision would also mean inviting further troubles. Dahal has not been able to decide yet on what to do next. On this backdrop, he initiated the parleys with the former politburo members of his party. However, the advice from the politburo members to accept the poll results has compelled him to seek the face-saving solutions. Formation of national consensus government, consensus with Baidya-led alliance, constitution drafting through consensus are some of the demands that Dahal is mulling to float in an attempt of face-saving settlement.  The demands are against his party’s manifesto which underlines the need to adopt the due process in the CA to draft the constitution if consensus is not forged among the parties. Likewise, he is also holding a consultation with Upendra Yadav-led Madhesi Janadhikar Forum and Ashok Rai-led Federal Socialist Party, who have also announced to reject the voting result, to find out other options.
Similarly, he has even reached to poll-opposing alliance leader Mohan Baidya Kiran with an idea of party unity. They held a discussion yesterday at the residence of UCPN (Maoist) leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara in Dhobighaat. Failed to find the discussion with Baidya on his favour, Dahal is now in mood to negotiate with Nepali Congress and CPN (UML). For that, Dahal held a talk with CPN (UML) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal at latter’s residence amid the presence of Jhalanath Khanal. Though the conclusion of the talk has not been disclosed, Dahal is meeting Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala at latter’s residence Maharajgunj today.