Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has said that his government needs to do more towards ensuring better service delivery, while claiming that the alliance with Nepali Congress is moving ahead satisfactorily.

While presenting his political document at the party’s secretariat meeting on Thursday, Oli stated that some elements are trying to promote “anarchy” in the society and take the country towards political instability. He urged the party’s rank and file to counter those efforts.

A meeting of the party’s secretariat on Thursday approved Oli’s political document, which will later be presented in the party's central committee meeting scheduled to take place on January 5 and 6.

Oli’s paper also assesses the latest political situation of the country. In the meeting, Oli clarified why the country’s two largest parties–Nepali Congress and UML–joined hands to form the current government.

He elaborated why the present government should continue until next elections, said the UML leaders who were present at the meeting. “The government of two big parties has opened new prospects of opportunity,” states Oli’s document, which also analyses the international situation.

Contrary to Oli’s claims, however, the main opposition, CPN (Maoist Centre), has concluded that the government has totally failed and it is headed in the wrong direction.

When the UML’s secretariat meeting was underway, the main opposition was also holding its standing committee meeting.

“[We have concluded that] the government has failed,” Maoist Centre spokesperson Agni Sapkota said after the meeting. “It is headed in the wrong direction and has failed to promote good governance as it has protected the corrupt, mafias and middlemen.”

In the Maoist meeting, party chair and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal predicted that the present government does not have much life left.

“The government has failed on both domestic and external fronts,” a standing committee member quoted Dahal as saying. “The external forces do not trust this government while there is massive dissatisfaction within the Nepali Congress and UML regarding the performance of the government.”

The UML secretariat meeting also discussed and reviewed the performance of the Oli government. Members expressed that the government needs to do more and speed up its performance, said Pradeep Gyawali, deputy general secretary of the UML.

However, the members said that in the last six months, the government has carried out some remarkable work, Gyawali added.

“In order to complete other works and improve its performance, the government should focus on delivery, development and construction and economic development,” Gyawali said.

In the meeting, Prime Minister Oli and other UML leaders said that relations with coalition partner Nepali Congress are smooth and formation of different mechanisms between the two parties to help the government perform better are also making progress.

The ruling parties have formed political mechanisms that include senior leaders from both parties and also a task force to look into ways to create a conducive environment for doing business, facilitating investment and improving service delivery. They are also tasked with looking into the status of pending bills in Parliament. A third task force to look into the issues related to constitution amendment is yet to be formed.

The task forces are mandated to look into and suggest the government in nine different areas including constitution amendment, implementation of federalism, and settling down the bills that are pending in the house, among others, Gyawali said. “These issues have created trust between Congress and us and given the sense of political stability,” he said.

In the meeting, UML leaders also asserted that after the formation of the government, economic indicators are heading towards stabilisation as revenue collection has increased, and foreign investment and foreign aid and assistance is growing.

“The government has concluded some notable works in these six months,” Gyawali said. “The bill related to transitional justice has been approved, over six thousand individuals have got back their deposit from the cooperatives, and some eight thousand depositors have got back half of their half deposits.”

But the government has to do a lot to ensure more effective service delivery to the general people, speed up development works and improve the economy, Gyawali added.

On the other hand, one of the highlights of the Maoist meeting was the presence of former vice president Nanda Bahadur Pun. The repeated presence of the former vice president in the party’s meeting has raised serious ethical questions.

“We were surprised to see his presence in the meeting,” a standing committee member said. “Though he did not speak in the meeting, one can easily understand that it was the party chair’s design to bring him back into party politics.”

Some Maoist leaders suspect that Pun will probably be given the role of party’s vice president as Dahal attempts to curtail the political ambitions of two other leaders Barsha Man Pun and Janardan Sharma.

“After he didn’t make much headway into bringing back other senior leaders like Netra Bikram Chand, Dahal is now attempting to establish the former vice president in party politics,” the standing committee member said. “This leaves little doubt that Dahal does not want to give prominent roles to Pun and Sharma.”

Moreover, the Maoist party has decided to launch a six-month long campaign across the Postal Highway in Tarai and Madan Bhandari Highway in the hilly region, Sapkota said. “We will listen to the people, what they are looking for, and what they want,” he said.