The Nepali Congress-led five-party ruling alliance has broken in the eleventh hour of the deadline given by President Bidya Devi Bhandari for the parties to stake their claim to form the government.

The coalition partner CPN (Maoist Centre) walked out of the Congress-led alliance on Sunday afternoon after a failed attempt to reach a consensus with Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.

As no party commanded a majority in the House of Representatives single-handedly, the President on December 19 had called parties to form a government under Article 76 (2) of the constitution within seven days.

“We are heading to Sheetal Niwas to stake a claim for the new government under the leadership of our party chair [Pushpa Kamal Dahal],” Dev Prasad Gurung, general secretary of the CPN (Maoist Centre), told the Post, following the deal with UML.

The meeting of the CPN-UML, Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janamat Party, Janata Samajbadi Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party on Sunday has reached an agreement to make Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal prime minister for the first half of the next five-year term.

Dahal, after Nepali Congress President Deuba refused to hand over the post for the first term, had reached Balkot to meet UML chair Oli. They were later joined by the key leaders of other parties. With Congress refusing to share none of the posts of the prime minister and the President to the Maoist Centre, Dahal had told Deuba that his party cannot remain in the coalition any longer.

CPN-UML has 77 seats [excluding Laxmi Mahato Koiri], Maoist Centre 32 seats, Rastriya Swatantra Party 20 seats, Rastriya Prajatantra Party 14 seats, Janamat Party 6 seats, Janata Samajbadi Party 12 seats and Nagarik Unmukti Party 4 seats in the lower house. Combined, they now have a comfortable majority to form a new government.