Maoist candidate likely to win in Nepal polls

Kathmandu: It is almost certain that the first president of Nepal will be a person of Indian origin as all three mainstream parties on Thursday decided to field candidates from the Madhesi community for the coveted post in the July 19 poll.

CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML decided to field Madhesi candidates from the southern Terai region bordering India for presidential poll after failing to reach a consensus on a common name.

The election for the president and vice president will be held on Saturday in the newly-formed Constituent Assembly.

Political analysts said Maoists' candidate Ramraja Prasad Singh, 74, of Nava Janawadi Morcha, is likely to win the election as he is also backed by United Democratic Madhesi Front.

Rajendra Mahato, president of influential Sadbhavana Party, also a Madhesi group, said all the three Madhesi parties -- Madhesi People's Rights Forum, Terai Madhesi Democratic Party and Sadbhavana Party - would support Singh's candidature.

The Maoists have 226 seats in the Constituent Assembly and with the support of Madhesi parties, which have 86 parliamentarians, Singh is likely to get at least 314 votes against the magic number of 298 required to win the election in the Constituent Assembly, which has 594 eligible voters.

The Madhesi community has been fighting for greater political and economic rights.

Singh, who did his Master's degree (Law) from Delhi University, said he wanted to have close and better relationship with India.

As Nepal is a landlocked country, we should establish closer ties with India, Singh told PTI.

Nepali Congress has fielded Rambaran Yadav as its candidate for the top post while Ram Prit Pashwan is the candidate of the CPN-UML.

Four candidates are in the fray for the post of vice president.

Man Bahadur Bishwokarma is the Vice Presidential candidate of Nepali Congress while Ashta Laxmi Shakya, the only woman candidate, belongs to CPN-UML. The Madhesi People's Rights Forum has decided to field Paramananda Jha while Shanta Shrestha is the candidate of the CPN-Maoist.

Talking about his vision for the new republic, Singh said he would like Nepal to have a constitution similar to that of South Africa. "The South African Constitution is the best constitution for a country like Nepal," he said.

Singh was close to Maoists during the decade-long insurgency as he claimed that he taught the former rebels how to make explosives.

"I taught them skills to make powerful bombs, which were used during armed struggle," he said.

"I tried to convince Indian leaders that they were not terrorists but revolutionaries, who want to bring change in the country," he said.

"The Maoists were basically concentrated in the rural areas, but I taught them urban warfare," he claimed while talking to journalists.

After several rounds of talks with Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, the Maoists decided not to support candidature of NC's Girija Prasad Koirala or CPN-UML's Madhav Kumar Nepal.

CPN-UML general secretary Jhalanath Khanal said his party would not forge any alliance with CPN-Maoist to form a new government. He said his party would sit in the opposition.

The talks between the two parties failed after Maoists rejected candidature of Nepal for president's post.