That the recent National Assembly elections and unexpected results of the Koshi Province have deepened divisions in the ruling alliance has been known for some time. Yet Prime Minister and Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal had been mum on the issue—until now.

Dahal broke the silence on Monday at the party’s central committee meeting, blaming the Congress for deceiving his party, which in turn had renewed doubts about the longevity of the ruling alliance.

“The CPN (Maoist Centre) has reached a point where it must rethink the alliance with the Nepali Congress,” a Maoist Centre central committee member quoted Dahal as saying at the meeting.

In recent Maoist Centre internal meetings, several second-rung leaders had been raising similar concerns on the longevity and efficacy of the alliance with the Congress, which is increasingly being viewed as unnatural.

But this is the first time the party chair and prime minister has spoken on the dissatisfaction with the Congress, which is the largest party and has the biggest shares in the federal and provincial governments.

“We have taken the way Nepali Congress deceived us in Koshi Province seriously,” the prime minister said. “Our alliance with the Congress was a political necessity, but in a nutshell, it has not been profitable to us.”

“It was unfortunate that our candidate lost to the UML candidate in the National Assembly election,” Yuvaraj Chaulagai, a central committee member of the party, quoted Dahal as saying. “We abandoned our claim to the post of Speaker in Koshi, and later relinquished our claim to the chief minister as well. And then our candidate lost the [upper house] election, so our alliance with Nepali Congress looks unprofitable.”

Dahal also said that he had become prime minister with the support of the CPN-UML, not the Congress.

The Maoist Centre is miffed with the Congress after its upper house candidate Champa Karki lost the election at Koshi Province despite the coalition having enough votes to beat UML’s Rukmini Koirala.

Krishna Prasad Sitaula of the Congress and Karki of the Maoist Centre were contesting elections from the ruling alliance for the two vacant assembly seats from Koshi. Karki lost even as Sitaula was elected. The Maoist Centre has taken Karki’s defeat seriously and already raised it at the meeting of the ruling alliance.

“The loss in the Koshi Province has compelled us to reassess the partnership,” a central committee member of the Maoist Centre quoted Dahal as saying.

Dahal also stated that the Congress had similarly betrayed his party while forming provincial governments, and earlier during the local, provincial and federal elections.

The prime minister, however, said growing unease does not mean that the partnership will break.

“But we are not working to form a new alliance,” Dahal had said at the meeting, according to another central committee member. “We still have to complete the remaining tasks of the peace process. Due to several other reasons, we are not in a position to constitute a new alliance either. But it is true that we have reached a stage whereby we have to reassess the alliance with the Congress.”

There is yet another reason why the Maoists are unhappy with the Congress. The Maoist Centre had nominated its candidate for the post of chief minister in the Koshi Province. But Congress candidate Kedar Karki became the chief minister of the province with the UML backing. This left the Maoist Centre bitterly disappointed.

Dahal, in his concluding remarks, said some central leaders of the Congress were involved in the betrayal in Koshi.

According to Laxman Pant, another member of the Maoist central committee, majority of the committee members were of the view that in the future the party should contest elections on its own strength. “We have to create a new political environment so that we can contest elections independently, and accordingly we have to shore up the party,” Pant said.

“Seven or eight vital agendas were discussed during the meeting. One, it decided to launch several activities and campaigns in the Tarai and in the mountains to rebuild the party organisation. Also, as we could not benefit from our alliance either with the Congress or the UML, it is our request to party headquarters that we contest the upcoming elections independently. We have lost our identity through alliances.”

Dahal had also expressed his frustration with the party’s student and youth wings for failing to work to shore up the mother party.

Dahal, in his address, stated that his party will celebrate the Janayuddha Diwas (anniversary of the launch of the Maoist insurgency), which falls Tuesday. The party launched the insurgency on 13 February, 1996. The insurgency, which saw over 17,000 deaths over a decade, ended with the signing of a peace accord in November 2006. Thousands of people are still unaccounted for.

On December 29, the Supreme Court, acting on a writ petition, quashed the government decision to announce a public holiday on Janayuddha Diwas. But Dahal said they will still commemorate the big day. “While respecting the court’s verdict, we are still going to celebrate Janayuddha Diwas on Tuesday,” Dahal said on Monday.

On the other hand, Congress leaders said that they have no idea why Prime Minister Dahal and some Maoist leaders are making a hue and cry over the alliance with their party. “It is Prime Minister Dahal who has benefitted the most from this alliance,” said Min Bishwakarma, head of the Congress publicity department.

“Had the Maoists allied with the UML, they would be greatly suffering now. The Congress is not like the UML. We have been rather flexible with Dahal due to which he has derived maximum advantage from the current alliance. There is no basis to the allegation that the Congress has somehow betrayed the Maoist Centre.”