TNN & Agencie 9 Dec 9, 2017 – In a setback for India, the Nepali Congress seemed to suffer heavy losses in the initial counting of votes in Nepal for federal and provincial assemblies. The communist alliance backed by China was leading in over two-thirds of seats, reported the Kathmandu Po st.
The opposition CPN-UML won maximum number of seats until late Friday with ally CPN-Maoist Centre at second place. The pro-India Nepali Congress was at a distant third. The Left alliance is leading in most seats where elections were held in the first phase. Indian government officials did not comment on the initial trends saying they would wait for the final outcome.
The CPN-UML is led by K P Oli who is known to be extremely close to the Chinese leadership and who has often in the past made his disdain for India obvious. As PM, Oli had gone out of his way to undercut India’s traditional influence in Nepal by aggressively courting China. In a surprise move, CPN-Maoist Centre, pulling out of the Sher Bahadur Deuba government, had on October 3 announced an alliance with the country’s largest communist bloc CPN-UML, ahead of the elections. First phase poll was held in 32 districts for 37 seats in House of Representatives, the Kathmandu Post said. Out of these, it said, the left alliance was in the lead in 29 constituencies and Nepali Congress in only four constituencies.