POREG VIEW: For quite some, Nepal’s Maoist leader Prachanda has been under pressure to bow out of the PM race and let another colleague, who is more acceptable to rival camps, to enter the fray. But the erstwhile guerilla leader, who had his brush with power politics as the first prime minister of Nepal Republic paid no heed. Now, the change of heart could be because of the certainty that the eighth round of ballot in the PM election on Sept 26 will not break the deadlock.

Though a formal announcement is awaited, deputy chairman of the Maoist party, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has hinted at the pull out in a radio interview on Sunday. The Maoists are acutely embarrassed by the turn of events. But then it is a self-inflicted discomfiture.

Significantly, Bhattarai has spoken of the need for national consensus ‘to keep reactionary forces at bay’, and voiced the conviction that ‘there is no alternative to national consensus’. As the key Maoist player, he knows that it was his party that had stood in the way of national consensus, and asked every other party to fall in-line with the Maoist agenda.

To what extent the visiting high level Chinese delegation influenced the Maoist thinking is not clear. It is possible the political impasse figured in the delegations’ talks with Nepal leaders. Because, a stable Nepal is in China’s interest which is gripped by fears of ‘Free Tibet’ campaign in the new republic. Like the adage ‘all is well that ends well’, the unfolding developments augur well for the nascent democracy in Nepal. .