ITAHARI: Now that counting results of most of the 56 first past the post (FPTP) seats of Province 1 have come out, speculations about who will form the government in the country’s easternmost province have begun.
CPN-UML has taken 24 out of 53 seats declared so far, while Nepali Congress is second with 15 seats. CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) have won nine, three and two seats, respectively.
Of the three seats where counting is underway, UML is leading in Sunsari-3 (B), while NC is ahead in Sunsari-4 (A) and (B).
Province 1 Assembly has 93 seats including 37 proportionate representation (PR) seats. This means parties must secure 37 seats to form the government.
Who are the aspirants?
Parties have begun discussions on the selection of parliamentary leaders. As two chief minister aspirants – Gururaj Ghimire and Rajeev Koirala – faced defeats, the chances of Amrit Aryal are high in Nepali Congress.
It is said that Aryal agreed to contest in the province assembly election only after he was promised the post of chief minister. Bhim Parajuli, the former mayor of Biratnagar Metropolitan City, is another aspirant in the party. While Aryal is close to party president Sher Bahadur Deuba, Parajuli belongs to Krisha Prasad Sitaula’s camp. Since Sitaula is close to Deuba at the central level, the parliamentary leader will be selected on a consensus basis. Kedar Karki is also said to have an outside chance.
CPN-UML is almost certain to elect Hikmat Karki as its parliamentary party leader. Karki also served as the Minister for Internal Affairs and Law of the Province 1 Government.
Maoist Center has hinted that Indra Bahadur Angbo will be its parliamentary party leader. He was elected parliamentary party leader in 2017 as well. Angbo also served as the Minister for Economic Affairs in the province’s first government led by UML’s Sherdhan Rai. He is said to be preparing a strategy to become the next chief minister.
But Maoist leaders and cadres say Maoist could select party president Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s son-in-law Jeevan Acharya as the parliamentary leader. Acharya was elected from the Morang-6 (A) constituency.
Unified Socialist is almost certain to make incumbent Chief Minister Rajendra Rai its leader in the parliament. He was reelected from Bhojpur (A) constituency.
