Three days after constituting a new ruling coalition, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has blamed the Nepali Congress for compelling him to break the yearlong alliance with the party.

Addressing the House of Representatives on Thursday, Dahal said he could not perform as he wanted under the previous alliance, which prompted him to seek new coalition partners.

“I repeatedly said that I was not satisfied with the government’s pace,” he said. I had two options: First, to lead an average and ad hoc government holding on to the prime ministerial position, and second, to risk the position for nation-building as per my political commitment. I chose the second.”

In internal meetings, Dahal had accused some ministers from the Congress of non-cooperation. He was particularly unhappy with Prakash Sharan Mahat, the immediate past finance minister, for refusing to act as he wanted. While thanking the Nepali Congress leadership for trusting him as prime minister, Dahal also said he was in the top job for the third time to perform, not just for the sake of leading a government. He added he couldn’t perform as expected because his partners were not comfortable working with.

The prime minister said the Congress didn’t reciprocate the support it received to his party, the Maoist Centre. The third-largest party had won 36 seats under the first-past-the-post category in the 2017 federal elections when it had partnered with the CPN-UML. But the seats halved to 18 when it partnered with the Congress and other parties in 2022.

In his address, the Maoist Centre supremo also reminded his former coalition partner that it refused to hand over the government’s leadership to his party after the election. With the then Prime Minister and Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba reluctant to hand over the position, the Maoist Centre formed a coalition with the UML in the last week of December 2022, though it only lasted a couple of months until the presidential election.

Dahal also revealed his dissatisfaction over the revolt of the Congress provincial assembly members in Koshi, which barred his party’s candidate Indra Bahadur Angbo from becoming the chief minister. Kedar Karki, a Congress leader from a dissident faction of the party, became the chief minister though Angbo was the official candidate of the ruling parties. “The move, which must have been liable for action from the party, was rather rewarded,” said Dahal, adding that his party’s candidate from Koshi was defeated due to betrayal from the Congress.

Maoist Centre’s Champa Karki, a common candidate of the then ruling alliance, was defeated by the UML’s Rukmini Koirala after some Congress voters did not vote along the official line.

The political paper presented in last month’s Mahasamiti meeting of the Congress, which said the Maoist violence was unnecessary, was another factor that prompted the divorce, according to Dahal. In addition, the prime minister said that the move of some Congress leaders to campaign for a Hindu state during the Mahasamiti meeting had given ample room to suspect the party’s commitment to the constitution. Over 1,100 Congress members signed a petition for reinstating Nepal as a Hindu state during the Mahasamiti meeting, which is considered the party’s major policy-making body.

The Congress, however, rubbished Dahal’s allegations as a non-issue. It also said Dahal raised the issues, which were already settled, to justify his unprincipled move. The party has even called Dahal a betrayer who lacks political honesty.

Addressing the House meeting, Ramesh Lekhak, the Congress chief whip, said Dahal had betrayed all the parties—not once but multiple times. “You [Dahal] betrayed not only us but other parties as well,” Lekhak said. “Just imagine what your fate would be if all those that you betrayed came together against you.”

He reminded Dahal and his party that they had contested the election together, promising voters they’d continue the alliance for five years. “The unilateral dissolution of the alliance was also a betrayal to the people who voted for you,” Lekhak said, addressing Dahal.

Lekhak reminded Dahal that he had already formed and broken alliances three times in the 14 months since the 2022 elections. “At the current pace, he can constitute and break the alliance 12 times in the four years until the next election,” Lekhak said. “This is not called flexibility. This is political dishonesty, which people are watching very closely.”

A meeting of the Congress parliamentary party held on the day announced that the party had withdrawn its support to Dahal.

The prime minister said he would elaborate on why the new coalition was formed when he seeks Parliament’s trust within a month. Leaders from other ruling parties, who spoke in the House meeting, said the new coalition will last until the elections four years away.