After being elected as parliamentary party leader of the CPN (Maoist Centre) on Thursday, the party’s chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal reiterated his claim to prime ministership.

Dahal, who has been leading the Maoist party’s parliamentary caucus ever since the party joined mainstream politics in 2006, was yet again unanimously elected to the post.

According to Maoist lawmakers, Dahal told them that he would speak to Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Nepal and then stake his claim to government leadership.

This is likely to complicate power-sharing negotiations among coalition partners as Deuba is also lobbying to continue as prime minister. Dahal and Deuba had reportedly reached a “gentlemen’s agreement” when they forged an electoral alliance ahead of the November 20 polls to head the government by turns.

Dahal is desperately working to clinch the prime ministerial position for the first half of the five-year term of the House of Representatives.

“Our parliamentary party’s meeting today [Thursday] has unanimously elected Chairman Dahal as the leader of our parliamentary party,” Maoist lawmaker Rekha Sharma told the Post. “The party has also elected Hitraj Pande as chief whip of the House of Representatives.”

Pande was elected member of parliament under the proportional representation (PR) category.

However, the meeting of the parliamentary party held at Singhadurbar failed to elect a deputy leader because two of its leaders, Janardan Sharma and Barshaman Pun, staked their claims to the post.

Earlier, there was a similar dispute in the party over the post of general secretary after the same two leaders Sharma and Pun staked their claims. But Dahal avoided the two and promoted Dev Prasad Gurung to the party’s key post.

If the fight between the two leaders continues, the post of deputy leader of the parliamentary party could go to another candidate.

“There is a possibility that Mahendra Yadav, a leader of Nepal Samajbadi Party, who contested the polls on our election symbol, could be the deputy leader,” said Sharma. “The party will pick its deputy leader and whip later, after further discussions.”

As Pande got the chief whip’s position, a female leader could be appointed as whip so as to ensure inclusion, Sharma said.

The party also elected its senior vice-chair Narayan Kaji Shrestha as the leader of the parliamentary party in the National Assembly.

The party had earlier selected Gopi Bahadur Sarki Achhami and Ganga Kumari Belbase as chief whip and whip, respectively, for the National Assembly.