Kathmandu: The jealousy factor came as a major stumbling block which restricted the five party alliance against “regression” to push a common name for the post of the prime minister as demanded by the King within a time frame that expired Monday evening.

The United Marxist and Leninist party, the UML and her leaders apparently exhibited their flexibility to the King’s call for sending one good name for the post of the prime minister but could not bag success due to the haughtiness of the Congress president, Girija Prasad Koirala, and of the double standards shown by the smaller parties in the coalition which summarily went against the UML contention.

The UML contention had been that the ongoing fight with the King on constitutional and matters related with sovereignty could be stretched even after the formation of an all-party government under the leadership of the one who is nominated by the FPA. However, things did not go the UML way.

The fact is that when Koirala knew that the UML candidate, Madhav Nepal who was a consensus candidate of the FPA for the post of the prime minister some one year ago had begun political maneuvering for the post, he seduced the smaller parties in the coalition to raise the matters that unless the King yielded to their terms and demands, the forwarding of one common name for the prime minister ship simply becomes redundant.

Koirala and his team in the FPA alliance now maintain that if one common name would have been sent to the perusal of the King for his consideration would have meant that the FPA’s agitation against the King was simply meant for a post of the prime minister and nothing more than that.

On the other hand, the UML took the King’s call as an opportunity to enter into the system of governance, which could later have allowed them all to push the King to the wall on constitutional matters.

Koirala who now talks of constitutional matters is simply saying so because he did not fit into the scheme of King’s things and that he knew in advance that the King was not that happy with him on varied political counts and apparently consoled himself that he will in no way be obliged by the King for the coveted post he loves most.

But this is not all.

Koirala presumably internally concluded that if he is denied the post, he would bring heaven down earth to damage the prospects of Madhav Nepal from becoming the nation’s next prime minister. He apparently has succeeded in his game plan, analysts say.

That Madhav Nepal and his party men were bit flexible towards the King’s call becomes clear from th statement the UML released upon the grand “failure” of the FPA Summit meeting at the UML headquarters held Monday afternoon. It was Koirala’s obstruction which scrapped the chances of the UML’s Madhav Nepal from becoming the prime minister, said one UMLite on condition of anonymity to this scribe.

Now that neither Koirala nor Madhav Nepal nor even Sher Bahadur Deuba have “applied” for the vacant post of the country’s prime minister ship as per the call of the King, their chances of grabbing that very coveted post appears remote if not impossible.

Nevertheless, Deuba’s sudden dash to the Palace Monday late evening for a tête-à-tête with the King does hint that Deuba is not yet a lost case though he has failed to apply for the post.

The significant part of the whole story is that Deuba is reported to have told the King that if he is denied the post, let Madhav Nepal be its genuine contender. However, what was King’s reaction to Deuba’s modest recommendation is yet a mystery. But then yet Deuba’s sudden meet with the King does indicate that the King still is trying his best to find a clean personality who could satisfy his demands and conduct the elections as per his declaration.

The filing of the “application” at the palace stands expired. With no towering personality in sight among those who have already applied for the post, it is yet a matter of guess-work only as to who is the lucky one to be blessed with the post of the prime minister ship of the country?

Sources close to the UML say that with Koirala’s explicit hatred for the UML which he exhibited Monday at FPA meet at Balkhu, chances remain now that the FPA unity might develop a fissure to the utter chagrin of the one who brought this fissure that is president Koirala.

Other sources close to the UML say that the party is thinking on the lines to join in a government that is to be formed yet if the government thus formed talks with the King straight for the restoration of the people’s rights and sovereignty.