KATHMANDU, Oct 21: The Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA), an alliance mainly of the ruling parties, has decided to keep all options open to facilitate consensus among the political parties.
"We are open to both the options -- holding fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) polls and to revive the CA -- if political parties forge consensus on disputed issues of the new constitution," Spokesperson of the alliance Prem Bahadur Singh told Republica. [break]He, however, maintained that they would prefer fresh polls.
According to the leaders of the alliance, they have urged all the political parties to adopt flexibility for consensus.
A meeting of the alliance on Saturday also decided to expedite initiatives for consensus even during the festive season. "We will hold talks with the political parties to find a way out of the current political impasse even during the festival," Singh added.
The alliance also expressed concern over the president not inviting some fringe parties to an all-party meeting held recently. "The president is free to invite any political party for talks. But he should also have invited the fringe parties, especially as it was an all-party meeting," Singh added.
Some fringe parties including Sanghiya Rastriya Manch led by Rukmini Chaudhari and Nava Nirman Party were not invited for the meeting called by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav on Friday.
According to Singh, the next meeting of the alliance has been scheduled for October 31. "We will review the progress made in talks with political parties and chalk out our future strategy at our next meeting," he stated.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai were also present at the meeting held at the prime minister´s resident at Baluwatar.