During a meeting held at Godavari Village Resort in Lalitpur, leaders of the two parties agreed to explore all possible ways to help address the concerns raised by the Maoists and let the legislature-parliament resume.
Maoist lawmakers have been obstructing the House ever since Speaker Subash Nembang refused to allow a Maoist resolution against the President over his reinstatement of the army chief to be discussed in parliament. The party has also been staging street protests against the President´s move.
Maoist deputy parliamentary party leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said they asked the UML leadership to come up with a concrete proposal to address Maoist concerns and help the House resume. “The issue of the army chief´s dismissal and the subsequent Maoist decision to step down from government is no ordinary issue,” he said.
Shrestha said they made it clear to the UML leaders that they do not want to obstruct the House for long, but want their concerns to be addressed in the House. He said that the UML leaders have taken their demands positively and given assurance they will hold discussions over the issue within the party and with other coalition partners.
Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, senior leaders Mohan Baidya and Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai and Maoist parliamentary party leader Post Bahadur Bogati attended the meeting on behalf of the Maoists. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and UML parliamentary party leader Bhim Acharya also took part in the meeting that lasted for over three hours.
The two parties have also formed a two-member task force comprising the parliamentary party leaders of the two parties to take initiatives to resume the stalled House. The leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday.
Talking to media after the meeting, UML parliamentary party leader Acharya said the house could resume from Wednesday.
This is the first time that the top leaders of the two parties sat face to face for discussions after the formation of the government under senior UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal on May 23.
The top leaders also held discussions on resolving differences that have surfaced between the two parties in the wake of the Maoists alleging that the UML was a puppet of ´foreign masters´ after it assumed leadership of the new government.
The relations between the two parties went sour after lower-rung Maoist activists issued threats to UML and Nepali Congress activists in the villages and also engaged in bitter clashes with the cadres of rival parties. “We discussed taking initiatives to stop clashes between the cadres of the two parties,” said Shrestha.
Sources said the UML leaders asked the Maoists to join the government. However, the Maoist leadership said this was impossible unless the UML took initiatives to correct the ´unconstitutional´ move by the President over the army chief row.
Sources said the Maoists had pointed out the need to develop a national consensus among all political parties to bail the country out of the current fragile political situation. “We said that it is impossible to take the ongoing peace process to a logical end and institutionalize the achievements of Janaandolan II,” Shrestha added.
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