Kathmandu: Now that the festival season is over, politics must inevitably take its traditional course. On the surface, three clear standpoints emerge. The Thapa government is going ahead with electoral plans begun with the appointment of officials to the locally elected posts as also indicated in his Tuesday afternoon press conference. The five agitating political parties have signaled once more their resolve to “correct” the alleged constitutional aberrations through agitation. The Maoists continue their hit and run strategy denying policy responsibilities on infra-structural destruction and controversial kidnappings while the armed forces appear to be gradually asserting their role over the Maoists.

Behind this public façade, however, are undercurrents which will shape these standpoints in actual implementation. Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, predictably seeks to strengthen his organization and thus has triggered reaction within his own party. The political nominations have thus come under scrutiny from both the RPP as also inevitably the five opposing parties. The Maoists have found the appointments new targets for kidnapping and coercion.

The appointments, however, signal the building of spearheads at the local level where elections are targeted. It is possible thus to deduct attempts at new alignments in preparation for this development. Girija Prasad Koirala’s statements expressing his “readiness” to face elections although accompanied with serious doubts regarding the possibility of elections, opens possibilities in this direction.

It is thus possible to begin scratching such surfacial postures in search for possibilities for analysis is, for example, Prime Minister Thapa seeking a breach within RPP to field his invigorated organization at the local level? Is Koirala working in “tandem” Thapa for elections? Will the UML oblige?

Viewed in this light, the need for a more impartial electoral government suiting to the UML becomes imminent. Perhaps the coming days will unfold these new needs.