As the major elections near, the main opposition CPN-UML and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) are mulling over forming a poll alliance to boost their prospects.

“Discussions are underway for forging an alliance with the UML and they are heading in a positive direction,” said Mohan Shrestha, Rastriya Prajatantra Party spokesperson.

For UML chair Oli, an alliance with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party in Jhapa-5 would make the contest easier. So, UML is planning to support Rajendra Lingden [RPP chair] in Jhapa-3 to secure Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s votes in other constituencies for the UML, insiders say. Rastriya Prajatantra Party, on the other hand, wants to win more seats than in the last elections with CPN-UML’s support.

In the 2022 local elections, the CPN-UML garnered 33.03% of popular votes—second to the Nepali Congress, while the RPP garnered 3.16% of popular votes. CPN-UML won chief positions in 206 local units after the Nepali Congress with 329 local units while the Rastriya Prajatantra Party won four local unit chiefs.

The major challenge for the Rastriya Prajatantra Party is to get a national party status, for which a party needs to win one seat under the first-past-the-post system and 3 percent of the total valid votes under the proportional representation system. The party garnered just a little over 3 percent of total votes in the last local elections.

CPN-UML, on the other hand, faces challenges from a stronger electoral alliance of the ruling coalition. The party has already called for a poll alliance with ‘like-minded forces’.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party chair Rajendra Lingden said preliminary discussions for forging an electoral alliance are underway. According to him, leaders from both parties have been deliberating on forging an alliance, but concrete decisions have yet to be made.

“The discussions for a poll alliance with UML have been positive. Alliances will be formed at the constituency level, based on the need, to improve the poll prospects of both the parties,” Lingden told the Post on Sunday.

According to him, as the ruling coalition has already fortified itself for the upcoming polls, both the UML and the RPP have realized that the nationalist and patriotic parties should move forward together. “We—the patriotic parties—are thinking of joining hands to garner more and more seats in the upcoming polls,” he said.

The ruling coalition has already decided to go to the polls under an electoral alliance. The coalition has the Nepali Congress, the Maoist Center, the Unified Socialist, the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, and the Rastriya Janamorcha as partners.

Insiders say other parties outside the ruling coalition, such as the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, and ruling coalition partners such as the Janata Samajbadi Party and the CPN (Unified Socialist), are also holding informal discussions with the CPN-UML for possible alliances in the upcoming polls.

CPN-UML chief whip Bishal Bhattarai said that discussions are ongoing with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party to defeat the ruling coalition, fortifying ‘like-minded forces’ around the UML. “Deliberations are underway for a poll alliance with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, but we have not reached any conclusion yet,” he told the Post.