The Central Committee meeting of the CPN-UML has decided to go to the November 20 polls projecting its chairman KP Sharma Oli as the next prime minister.

The two-day-long meeting that concluded Saturday also decided to partner with like-minded parties in the upcoming federal and provincial polls.

“If left forces joined hands it would help bring change to the country,” said Bishal Bhattarai, a politburo member of the party. “All parties are seeking to bring political stability through a majority government, therefore we have called for an alliance because [a majority government] is not possible if we remain scattered.”

This is probably the first time since the dissolution of the Nepal Communist Party the UML chair has made a call for forming a left alliance. Insiders, however, said there have been attempts to hold discussions with the leaders of the CPN (Maoist Centre), and the CPN (Unified Socialist).

During the meeting chairman Oli had told leaders that merely sloganeering for a left alliance will not work and a focussed campaign is needed.

“Some leftist parties have joined hands with rightist forces to make the latter successful. If they are true leftists, they should partner with us,” Bhattarai quoted Oli as saying at the meeting. “Let’s form an electoral front of like-minded forces.”

UML leaders have said they have been trying hard to convince leaders of the CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Maoist Centre offering them a better bargain in seat-sharing than that of the ruling alliance.

UML had contested the 2017 federal and provincial polls by forging an electoral alliance with the CPN (Maoist Centre) and had garnered almost two-thirds majority. Later the two parties merged in May 2018. However, the UML Chair Oli-led government would not last owing to an infighting for power and in March last year, the Supreme Court annulled the merger reviving the two parties. In the following August, UML dissident leaders Madhav Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal also quit the party and launched their own CPN (Unified Socialist) with 24 lawmakers.

Eventually, the Oli-led government was toppled after Nepal and Khanal along with CPN (Maoist Centre) supported the Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to form a new government.

On Saturday, the UML Central Committee meeting endorsed a 19-page political document presented by party chair Oli after discussing it in nine different groups of central members.

Oli’s document is sharply critical of the ruling coalition saying it is a unity sponsored by foreign powers.

“Recently a leader of the ruling coalition in a foreign country and in the presence of foreigners discussed their post-election power-sharing arrangement,” states the political document presented by Oli during Friday’s meeting.

“These issues of sabotaging Nepal’s national integrity and allowing the exogenous power to meddle in the internal affairs are very serious.”

Though Oli’s document has not named the ruling party leader, it is obvious that he was indicating at CPN (Maoist Centre) chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had visited India on July 15 where he, along with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s spouse Arzoo Deuba, held meetings with the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Dahal had visited India on the invitation of BJP chairman JP Nadda, where he met national security advisor of India Ajit Doval and Minister for External Affairs S Jayashankar besides Nadda.

In his political document Oli has also expressed dissatisfaction over the ruling coalition’s move to endorse the citizenship bill without a review recommended by the President.