Minister for Communication and Information Technology and Nepali Congress (NC) leader Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said the ruling coalition is close to finalizing sharing of seats in the upcoming elections.
He has added that the meeting of task force formed to finalize sharing of seats held at Baluwatar Tuesday reached close to finalizing sharing of seats, and the task force will again meet Wednesday evening to hold further discussion.
“It has moved forward in a positive manner. Therer are suspicions as to whether the coalition is facing any problem or there are problems in sharing of seats. We will soon give message to dispel such suspicions,” Karki, who is also a member of the task force, has stated.
The meeting on Tuesday was affected due to absence of coordinator of the 11-strong task force Krishna Sitaula owing to poor health. The task force is discussing about different kinds of modality for seat sharing, according to Karki. “We are close to agreement. We have discussed different kinds of modalities. We will soon reach conclusion about it.”
The task force has failed to reach conclusion with NC General Secretary Gagan Thapa, who is also member in the task force that includes three from NC and two each from other four parties in the ruling coalition, proposing that NC should get to field candidates in 100 out of 165 House of Representatives (HoR) seats pointing that the grand old party will not be able to manage disaffection in the rank and file and many may file rebel candidacy against the common coalition candidate as in the recent local election if NC were not to field candidates even in 100 constituencies. Thapa has been arguing that UML candidates will eventually win in those seats where candidates of other coalition partners are fielded if NC leaders were to field rebel candidacy or unhappy NC voters do not turn up to vote for candidates of other parties.