Good news for India: Deuba-led coalition may form Nepal government

NEW DELHI:  Sher Bahadur Deuba-led coalition is likely to form the next government in Nepal.
“Coalitions are a permanent feature of Nepal politics now. Dueba-led Nepali Congress coalition has 132 seats and he needs around 10 more to form the government.

Quite a few parties are ready to support them including, CK Raut-led Janamat party which has seven seats, NagarikUnmukti Party which has four and Independent party which has 20 seats,’’ say former Nepalese bureaucrat, V K Karna. The parties that are going to be a part of the coalition may do so on their own demands, however, as of now, getting the requisite number of seats would not be a problem for Deuba.

“As the process of counting votes has neared completion, a report would be submitted by Nepal’s Election Commission to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari at 5 pm on December 12. After going through the party lists and numbers, the President will invite them to the Parliament (on December 13) to share their result and those with maximum numbers will form the government. The formation can take a week or less as decided by the President,’’ Karna added.

The Deuba-led government is likely to enable smooth ties with India. When he succeeded Oli in 2021, he made his first visit as PM to India where he also visited Varanasi. Deuba had also invited India to invest in the 750 MW West Seti Hydropower Project. India wanted to buy power from Nepal, however, it was hesitant to do so from companies that had Chinese investments. New projects like Seti and Pancheswar are being developed by India at present.

India’s main concerns have been growing influence of China in their infrastructure development and also Pakistan’s ISI activities. In the last border talks too India had raised concerns of Chinese and Pakistani inflitrators from the Nepal border. Over coming week, Nepal will form a new government and after Deuba is sworn in as the Prime Minister, diplomatic and bilateral ties will be on the ascendant with India.