POREG VIEWS: Nepal Maoist leader Prachanda has again lost the Prime Ministerial race. The sixth round of PM’s elections on Sept. 5 ended on expected lines. No other party is yet willing to support either Prachanda or his Nepali Congress rival Ram Chander Poudel. True to the trend of the earlier five rounds, Prachanda could poll only 240 votes and Poudel 122, well short of the magic figure of 301 in 601-member interim constituent assembly. Maoists tried to rope in the Madheshi members who together have 81 seats. Leaders of both factions of Madhesh Janadhikar Forum – Bijoy Gachhedar and Upendra Yadav are apparently offered the posts of Deputy Prime Minister with the portfolios of Home and Foreign Affairs. A tempting offer it is for these small parties and they were said to be not averse to consider the offer. Politics is about power and it is not an opportunity that could come so easily.
Not being very sure of prospects of mobilising the required numbers, the Maoists have shown eagerness to take on the offer of financial help from the Chinese intelligence. In a telephonic conversation, the voice recording of which was released ostensibly by some disgruntled Maoist elements, Mahara requested for 50 crore Rupees to ‘buy fifty lawmakers by offering one crore rupee to each one of them. Maoists were confident to mobilise one more lawmakers to their camp to reach the goal post.
This is not for the first time that such voice or video recordings from sting operations surfaced in Kathmandu. It is also not the first time that the Maoists tried to purchase ‘votes’ to regain power. A video recording, released last year, showed Prachanda disclosing to party workers ‘how the Maoist leadership fudged the number of PLA cadres so that they could bargain with UNMIN (United Nations Monitoring in Nepal) to accommodate more of the armed cadres in the Army. There are also reports of Maoist leaders withdrawing huge amounts from two Banks in Kathmandu on the eve of third round of Prime Minister’s elections again significantly to buy Madheshi Members of Parliament.
The most interesting aspect of the conversation in the latest released tapes was a mention by Mahara that there is an additional channel of Chinese intelligence directly in contact with Chairman Prachanda. The two communications channels independent of each other that Prachanda and Mahara have with the Chinese intelligence show that the two are being dealt at different levels without the knowledge of each other. This is what the Maoist leaders should ponder over what the Chinese have been talking to each of them independently. Prachanda is considered to be more centrist in the Maoist ideology while Mahara is seen as ultra-left with strong Chinese connections. Mahara is the point main for the Chinese and it is no wonder that the Chinese Communist Party leaders were talking more frequently with him. It may be recalled that an 11-member delegation of Maoist leaders led by Mahara visited China on invitation in the first week of July and held talks with senior Communist party leaders on the strategies to be implemented in the current political scenario in the country.
It is interesting to see how the polling ends up on Sept. 7. The unpredictable factor is the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum led by Upendra Yadav. It has walked out of Sunday polling criticising the Madheshi Front’s decision to remain neutral.
