Nepali Congress, like-minded parties in talks

New Delhi, December 8

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The five-party ruling coalition in Nepal has fallen short of the halfway mark by two seats, but incumbent Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, is slated for another term as his Nepali Congress (NC) is confident of roping in enough additional partners.

With counting for the proportional voting system having been completed, the NC’s final tally is 89 seats making it the biggest party. The other four partners have 47 seats – CPN-Maoist Centre (32), CPN-Unified Socialist (10), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (4) and Rashtriya Janamorcha one.

The newly formed Janamat Party headed by C. K. Raut has won six seats in Madhesh and could be one of the partners of the ruling. Raut had defeated former Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav who had tied up with the opposition CPN (UML) led alliance. If Raut comes on board, the ruling alliance will have four more seats than the 138 required to form the government.