Nepal PM run-off becomes butt of jokes

KATHMANDU - As the race for Nepal’s new prime minister narrowed down to a duel between the republic’s two largest parties Friday, the re-election, expected to be a fiasco once more, became the butt of jokes.

Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who had won the same election by overwhelming majority two years ago but failed to get even simple majority in Wednesday’s election, is now pitted against former deputy prime minister Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress (NC) party with the communists having withdrawn their candidate.

Though both the rivals have been trying to acquire two-third majority in the 601-seat parliament, it is likely than neither will emerge as winner even Friday with two of the remaining largest groups threatening to abstain from voting, like they did last time.

The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) warned on the eve of the re-poll that it would not support any of the two contestants unless they could prove they had convincing support in the house.

UML chief and former contender Jhalanath Khanal is also urging both Prachanda and Poudel to withdraw their nominations so that fresh negotiations could start.

The UML being the third-largest party with 109 lawmakers, its abstention will seriously thwart both the contestants in the running from winning over two-third of the 599 MPs.

The fourth largest is a bloc of four ethnic parties from the Terai plains who together command 82 votes.

They could be the kingmakers in Friday’s run-off since their support will help the Maoists, the largest party with currently 236 MPs, to gain at least majority support.

However, the bloc has come up with an agenda for greater rights to Terai people and says it will support whosoever agrees to it.

With Friday’s re-poll too likely to end in a fiasco, Nepal’s media began mercilessly ridiculing the three top parties, portraying them as lusting for power and treacherous.

The Republica daily Friday published a cartoon showing Prachanda, Poudel and Khanal holding up beggar’s bowls. While the first two - whose hats are still in the ring - said “Vote malai” - Give me your vote - Khanal, who is now out of the reckoning, had a different message: “Kulfi malai” - Give me an ice cream.

The Kantipur daily had an even more hard-hitting cartoon.

The front-page satire showed Khanal, who had forced his own party peer Madhav Kumar Nepal to resign as prime minister last month in the name of an all-party government, dragging Nepal out of his chair with a rope.

The rope enmeshing Nepal said “national unity government”.

The second image showed a fallen Nepal adroitly looping the same rope around Khanal’s neck and bringing him down.

It was an acerbic reference to the UML’s decision Wednesday to withdraw Khanal as the prime ministerial candidate after he too failed to woo two-third of the MPs.

The Naya Patrika daily, still nursing a World Cup hangover, said Khanal was out of the playing field while the Nagarik fished out an old file photograph showing Prachanda, Poudel and Khanal in a rare pose.

The photograph, showing all three in red football jersey, was taken during a friendly football match among politicians in the past.

“Tie-breaker for PM’s cup,” the succinct caption said.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)