Nepali Congress, the leader of the five-party ruling coalition, seems to be in a mood for early elections. That should also suit CPN-UML, the main opposition, just fine. Although UML lost 89 top local level seats compared to its tally after the 2017 elections, the party in fact made a gain of 3.66m votes in all contested seats. Nepali Congress, for its part, got around 850,000 fewer votes than the UML. Had the five parties not ‘ganged up’ against it, UML could have trounced any individually contesting party, the party top-brass believes.

It is also hoping to prise away Maoist Center and Unified Socialist, the two communist coalition partners, from Nepali Congress before the upcoming federal and provincial elections. Upendra Yadav’s Janata Samajbadi Party might also be game for a rupture with Congress. Many top leaders of these three parties feel the Congress ‘betrayed’ them in local polls: even in joint tickets, while Congress won the top seats, they didn’t win the deputy seats as Congressis didn’t vote for them.

For the next few weeks the parties will be busy breaking down the results of local elections to chart a way forward. Sher Bahadur Deuba will have his work cut out keeping the coalition intact. 

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