With the chances of forging a broader ‘democratic’ alliance with the Nepali Congress looking slim, the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party are now left with few options.

Leaders of the RJP said either the two-party alliance would reach an understanding with the democratic alliance to ensure victory of top leaders of both the forces, 

setting a criteria of ‘top leaders’ or going for a healthy competition of three different alliances.

However, some of the leaders maintained that there were still chances that the two parties could part ways to form separate alliances—RJP with democratic and SSF with left alliance—as the two parties could not finalise the division of candidates in Province 2.

“The last resort could be to part ways and join different alliances,” said RJP General Secretary Keshav Jha, claiming that the Nepali Congress had been rigid on its stance and even the two parties has failed to finalise candidates.

SSF-N Co-chair Rajendra Shrestha said talks were still on with the NC for a broader democratic alliance but they were yet to reach any deal. He said things about the alliance could be clear in a day or two. 

In a bid to name common candidates, the two parties had agreed to divide 15 federal seats and 31 provincial seats for the RJP, and 17 federal and 33 provincial seats for the SSF-N. 

However, the two parties have been struggling to finalise the candidates with both of them claiming the constituencies where they could secure wins. 

Sources said the left alliance had also been reaching out to the SSF-N and the RJP separately to convince them to join it.

As per the schedule of the Election Commission, parties should nominate their candidates for the first past the post election system by November 2.