CPN (UML) general secretary Shankar Pokhrel has said that the UML will remain in the opposition bench in the parliament.Addressing a programme marking the 35th founding day of the Society for Liberation of Oppressed Castes Nepal here today, he said the people have not given the UML the mandate to form the government in the recently-held general election.

Leader Pokhrel added that they were ready to wait for five years more for getting the people’s mandate to form the government. “The present election mandate is not in our favour. We are in a ‘wait and see’ position and ready to wait for the next five years,” he said.Stating that the five-party coalition was on the verge of forming the next government although it too does not have the full mandate, he claimed that the UML has double capacity to face the ‘encirclement of the five-party coalition’ in the election.

According to him, the UML is the only party that has elected a lawmaker to the House of Representatives from the Dalit community through the first-past-the-post electoral system.Seventeen various people’s representatives elected from the UML to the House of Representatives and Province Assembly were felicitated on the occasion.