Major parties have intensified talks to divide seats in the upcoming National Assembly elections slated for January 25.

Recent meetings of the ruling coalition, including one on Tuesday, have discussed accommodating also the main opposition CPN-UML in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal wants to make room for the UML in the upper house elections. He apparently sees no danger of the UML posing a hurdle to parliamentary affairs and to approving bills related to transitional justice mechanisms, among others. But UML leaders said they have not proposed any kind of seat-sharing to the prime minister and they also see no possibility of that.

On Tuesday evening too, Prime Minister Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML Chairman KP Oli discussed how to accommodate the UML in the National Assembly, according to a member of the prime minister’s private secretariat.

The terms of 20 members of the upper house including its chair, Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, expire on March 3. The President will nominate one member on the government’s recommendation, while the Election Commission will conduct elections for the remaining 19 seats.

On Tuesday morning, the political parties in the ruling coalition discussed the future strategy and seat-sharing, but could not reach an agreement, said party leaders.

But Prime Minister Dahal and CPN-UML chair Oli are also talking, both directly and occasionally through intermediaries, to finalise some seats for the main opposition party.

If the ruling coalition remains intact and reaches a seat-sharing deal for the 19 vacant seats, the main opposition UML will not get even a single seat and will be limited to just eight seats in the 59-strong assembly. So the UML desperately wants some kind of arrangement, Nepali Congress leaders say.

According to CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Devendra Poudel, the UML has been floating informal proposals, hoping for some kind of power-sharing deal. “So far, we are in favour of keeping the seats among the ruling coalition,” he said.

On Tuesday too, during a press conference, Maoist Centre spokesman Agni Prasad Sapkota said his party intends to fight the assembly elections in an alliance with the coalition partners.

A Congress leader told the Post that his party is aware of the UML’s manoeuvrings.

“At first, the UML offered to split the 20 seats between us—with 13 seats for the Congress and the remaining seven for the UML. But our party chief Sher Bahadur Deuba rejected the proposal,” the Congress leader said.

“Now, the UML is adopting a ‘quid pro quo’ approach and bargaining with the prime minister that he needs the UML’s support in formulating laws related to transitional justice mechanisms.”

Maoist Centre leader Poudel insisted that his party also had no understanding with the UML on the matter. “We are very much in favour of continuing the partnership with the ruling coalition partners. But it is true that there have been some informal UML proposals that the party will support the lawmaking process if it gets some seats.”

But UML leaders claim that they are preparing their own strategy and may not join any alliance for the upcoming national assembly elections.

“We we will contest the election based on our strength,” said Bishnu Poudel, UML vice-chair, adding, “I am not aware of any meeting between party chair Oli and the prime minister, nor do I know of a seat-sharing proposal between the UML and the Maoist Centre.”

The ruling coalition will again meet on Wednesday to address the pressing need for a seat-sharing deal among the ruling parties.

Out of 19 seats, the Nepali Congress is looking for nine to 10 seats, Maoist Centre is looking for seven, including the post of chairman of the National Assembly.

Likewise, the CPN (Unified Socialist) is claiming four seats and Janata Samajbadi Party is looking for three seats, while other parties like Loktantrik Samajbadi, Janamat, and Nagarik Unmukti are looking for one seat each, respectively.

According to Nepali Congress chief whip Ramesh Lekhak, once there is a deal between the Congress and the Maoist Centre, they will then negotiate with other ruling parties.

On Monday also, Prime Minister Dahal met UML chief Oli at Baluwatar, the residence of the prime minister, where the two discussed the upper house elections, the bill related to transitional justice process, and other laws in the pipeline.

But Govinda Acharya, the press advisor to the prime minister, dismissed reports about the meeting between Oli and Dahal as ‘fabricated’.

“Both the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre have officially decided not to partner with parties from outside the ruling coalition for the assembly elections.”

The three-day central working committee meeting of the Nepali Congress that concluded on Saturday decided to field common candidates of ruling parties for the January 25 elections.

Top leaders from the ruling parties said while all the parties will field candidates for the seats they currently hold, the seats occupied by the UML will be distributed among the ruling parties.

Maoist Centre spokesman Agni Prasad Sapkota said the ruling coalition has yet to fix the number of seats to be given to his party.

“We are currently discussing policy-related issues and are yet to reach an understanding on specific numbers.”

Sapkota also said that the party plans to form an alliance with coalition partners for the upper house elections and fix the candidates accordingly.