Nepali Congress, CPN-UML write letters seeking votes for their presidential candidates

The Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have written to all the parties in Parliament seeking votes for their respective candidates, Ram Chandra Paudel and Subhash Nemwang, for the Presidential election on March 9.

It comes a day after CPN-UML, the second largest party in Parliament, withdrew its support to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda-led government following a rift over backing Paudel, the main opposition party's candidate for the presidential poll.

The prime reason for the break-up of the alliance between Prachanda and former Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli was the Maoist leader's decision to support senior Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Paudel for the President's post, who is from outside the ruling alliance.

Paudel, 78, and Nemwang, 69, from the CPN-UML party, filed their candidacies last week.

A letter signed by Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba was sent on Monday to various political parties seeking their vote for presidential candidate Paudel, chief secretary of the Nepali Congress Krishna Prasad Poudyal said.

Similarly, CPN-UML chairman Oli has also sent letters to various political parties, except the Nepali Congress, requesting to vote for its candidate Nemwang.

Both Paudel and Nemwang are former Speakers of the House of Representatives. Despite the CPN-UML withdrawing support, the Prachanda-led coalition government is expected to survive the trust vote in Parliament as it has the support of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House with 89 lawmakers.

In the 275-member House, the UML has 79 lawmakers while CPN (Maoist Center) has 32.

CPN (Unified Socialist) and RSP have 10 and 20 members, respectively. Janamat Party has 6 members, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party 4 and Nagarik Unmukti Party 3 members in parliament.

The RSP has decided to continue its support to the Prachanda-led government.

Prachanda needs only 138 votes in parliament to continue as the prime minister. Among the seven-party alliance, which earlier backed Prachanda, five political parties have decided to continue their support to the coalition government.

The eight-party alliance includes the Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Janamat Party, Janta Samajwadi Party, Lokatantrik Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the eight political parties formed a task force on Monday to prepare for the upcoming presidential election.