DIWAKAR CHETTRI
After a roller-coaster month, the Big Four political parties and the Interim Electoral Council finally isolated the CPN-M, and are pushing through with the 19 November polls.
In a week of fast-paced events, Mohan Baidya’s CPN-M made one last ditch attempt to salvage its reputation for being a spoiler. After smaller parties led by Ashok Rai and Upendra Yadav worked out compromises and agreed to go for polls, Baidya was feeling increasingly isolated.
President Ram Baran Yadav tried to bring the CPN-M on board and convened an all-party meeting on 13 September during which it looked like Baidya was actually willing to concede most of his demands. He just needed a face-saver in the form of Chairman Khil Raj Regmi leaving his Chief Justice post. The surprise visit by Indian Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh seemed to change everything: when the party leaders reconvened on Sunday at Shital Niwas, the other parties suddenly became inflexible and rejected outright the CPN-M’s conditions for polls. The Big Four also prevailed on the Election Commission to put off submission of final candidate lists by a week.
The question now is what the CPN-M will do. Regmi sent a message by meeting Army Chief Gaurav Rana on the army’s possible role in defanging Baidya’s boys. The arms haul this week showed that there are still lots of weapons out there.
The UCPN(M) will be affected the most by the CPN-M staying away, the NC and UML will gain, but it will be the 60 per cent undecideds who will swing the November election.
Kunda Dixit