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Kathmandu,Sunday March 19, 2000 Chaitra 06, 2056.
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Koirala elected NC leader in House, Koirala
gets 69 votes while Deuba 43
By Binaj Gurubacharya
KATHMANDU, March 18 - President of the governing
Nepali Congress (NC) Girija Prasad Koirala today beat former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur
Deuba 69-43 in the race for Parliamentary Party (PP) leadership.
As the leader of the party with majority in
parliament, Koirala is expected to be appointed as prime minister Monday when the Royal
Palace opens for business after the weekend, said NC Spokesman Narhari Acharya.
"My priorities will be to maintain law and
order, eradicate corruption and provide good governance," Koirala told reporters
after the results were announced.
Even in defeat Deuba appeared victorious securing
an unexpected 43 votes against the party strongman, who beside having held the prime
minister’s office for nearly five years commands a huge following in the party.
All the 113 NC lawmakers in the House of
Representatives lined up outside the PP office at Singha Durbar between 2 and 4 p.m. to
elect the new PP leader.
This is the first time in the NC PP history that
the leadership issue has been settled through voting. For once the nation’s oldest
democratic party settled the leadership issue through a vote.
"There are no enemies in NC and in a democracy
election is very much a normal affair," Koirala said.
When the results were declared, the nearly hundred
NC supporters who had gathered at the PP office cheered for Koirala congratulating him for
assuming the office once again in less than a year.
However, the bigger applause came for Deuba who
despite the loss in the number won a bigger battle, establishing that he has a sizeable
following in the party ranks.
"This is for me is a big achievement," a
jubilant Deuba said. "This is the first time in NC history that this democratic
exercise has been applied."
With Koirala’s main rival and the only other
senior leader in the party Krishna Prasad Bhattarai out of the race, Deuba now takes the
rein of the anti-Koirala camp. Most people had expected Deuba to get no more than a fourth
of the total votes but surprised these people by securing 39 percent of the votes.
Bhattarai while announcing his resignation on
Thursday had strongly advocated for a leader from the so-called Second Generation. His was
pointing at Deuba, who has been his protege and the only likely competitor to stand
against Koirala.
"It is not a question of when the new
generation will begin to compete for leadership, the new generation has already begun to
fight," Deuba said.
Bhattarai quit on Thursday after majority of the
lawmakers from NC twice rebelled against him in less than a month and filed proposal at
the PP office expressing no confidence at the prime minister.
The rebels, who were mostly Koirala supporters,
accused Bhattarai of poor performance and failing to show any leadership qualities and
heading a "directionless government."
"I am still a leader in the party and will
continue to be so. I will continue to work for the party," Bhattarai said after
voting in the election today.
Beside the 69 votes for Koirala and 43 for Deuba,
one vote was declared invalid. Spokesman Acharya said the signature on the ballot had been
for Koirala but later was scribbled.
Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel too had
taken a nomination form but later decided not to compete. "I was just trying to gauge
the situation. I could have been the compromise candidate but the situation was beyond
that already," Poudel said.
Observers say the Bhattarai-Koirala rivalry will
continue to dog the party, and could very well send the ruling party into tailspins in the
future.
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