By Our Reporter 

Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, who led the election government and established his party as the largest party in the House of Representatives in the November 20 polls, has missed the bus at the end. 

Deuba, who was confident to become the Prime Minister for the sixth time either of a coalition government or a minority government till midday on Sunday, lost everything by 4:00 pm the same day when the CPN (UML) decided to support Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of the CPN (Maoist Centre) to become the new Prime Minister. 

It was the shortsightedness and greed of Deuba, his spouse Arzu Rana and their coterie led by Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, who insisted that Deuba should not leave the post of the Prime Minister and President to Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, which culminated not only in the collapse of a 17-month alliance of the five parties but also left the largest party without any key political posts for at least five years. 

Had Deuba agreed to leave the post of the Prime Minister to Dahal, as demanded by the latter, the NC would have got the post of the President, Speaker, over a dozen powerful ministries in the centre, at least four Chief Ministers and an equal number of provincial chiefs. Ram Chandra Paudel would have become the President and Arzu a powerful minister. Now the NC will have none of these posts. Even if it will not win any seat in the National Assembly election next year. 

It is said that Deuba and Dahal had, before the elections, made a gentleman agreement that Dahal would lead the post-election government. The ruling alliance could also show its majority although it had won only 136 seats of the 275-member House of Representatives to elect Dahal to the top executive post. But Arzu and Mahat exerted pressure on Deuba not to give the post of the PM and President to the Maoist, without whose support Deuba could have never become the PM 17 months ago. Now Arzu and Mahat's greed for power has stripped NC of all political posts. 

It was reported that when NC vice president Purna Bahadur Khadka and Ram Chandra Paudel suggested Deuba make Dahal PM as per the gentleman agreement, Mahat even tried to manhandle Khadka. It is also rumored that Arzu had received Rs. 60 million from lawmaker Rajendra Bajgain with a promise to make him a minister. This is why Bajgai, a leader previously close to Dr Shekhar Koirala and elected from Gorkha in the House of Representatives, did not cast his vote for Gagan Kumar Thapa in the parliamentary party leader election. The two could have made money by distributing the posts of ambassadors, chairmen and general managers of different corporations. 

Again, KP Sharma Oli, who had a single goal to break the coalition, played a trick by telling Arzu that he would support Deuba if he became the Prime Minister of a minority government as per Article 76 (3). Power-hungry Arzu believed Oli and exerted unnecessary pressure on Deuba and his men, inviting the present fiasco. The unexpected political development has pushed the powerful president of the NC into a defensive position within the party.