Senior leader of MPRF-N Bharat Bimal Yadav said that talks between his party and SP were headed in a positive direction. “We finalized the basis for forging an electoral adjustment today [Wednesday],” said Yadav. He further said that there were three bases for adjustment. [break]
“The major basis is the current status of party organization in the constituencies, the second basis is the numbers of cadres the parties have, and the final basis is the results of the last CA election,” added Yadav. He stated that they have reached a conclusion to jointly contest the poll. "We have agreed that constituencies will be selected for mutual cooperation on the basis of the previous poll result. For instance, we will get the support of the SP to win in constituencies that we won in the past while we in turn will back the SP in constituencies that were secured by the SP," he said.
“We have formed a taskforce and Amresh Narayan Jha will lead the team from our side while SP General Secretary Manish Suman will lead from their side,” Yadav further said, adding that the taskforce would hold further discussions on Friday.
Asserting that they would take decisions on the basis of the report to be submitted by the taskforce, Yadav said, “Our taskforce will submit the report after studying the parties´ strength at grassroot level. And, we will then plan whether or not to forge adjustments in certain constituencies.”
SP General Secretary Manish Suman said that they were taking initiatives to forge electoral adjustments with other Madheshi parties as well. “We will try our best to forge adjustments with the Mahanth Thakur-led Tarai Madhesh Democratic Party (TMDP) and Bijay Gachchhadar-led MPRF-D also,” added Suman.
However, leaders of MPRF-N have ruled out any possibility of seat adjustments with other Madhesi parties. “There is slim chance of forging adjustments with the rest of the Madhesi parties as these have only shown reluctance,” said an MPRF-N leader seeking anonymity. He further said that they [TMDP, MPRF-D] always talk in a utopian fashion.
“They are not as strong in the Tarai constituencies as they claim,” he added.
Insisting that talk about forging adjustments with the UCPN (Maoist) was ´just media propaganda´, MPRF-N leader Amresh Narayan Jha, who also heads the taskforce for the party, said, “We are giving first priority to the constituent parties of the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) for forging electoral adjustments.” MPRF-D, TMDP, TMDP-Nepal, MPRF-Republican and SP are the five constituent parties of the UDMF.
He maintained that they were ´open´ to adjustment with any ´like-minded´ parties. "Adjustments will help us win the expected number of constituencies," said Jha.
Meanwhile, the three-day informal talks held with the TMDP have ended with a demand for 16 seats for political adjustment with the MPRF-D, party leaders said.
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