PM Khanal said this during a program organized to lay the foundation stone for the new office building of the Federation of Nepali Journalists in Tilganga on Sunday morning. [break]
The government, in the running fiscal year, has allocated Rs.10 million for the construction of the four-storied building to be availed with all modern amenities. The FJN had sought Rs 39.6 million for the construction.
On the occasion, PM Khanal stressed on the need to have a consensus government to help complete the pending tasks of the peace process and constitution writing.
Nepali Congress and UCPN (Maoist) have staked their claim to the leadership of the consensus government, with NC’s senior party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai running for the top post.
PM Khanal’s party UML, which led the past two successive majority governments, has opted not to run this time around and has further announced that it would sit in the opposition in case the next government is formed on majority basis.
Despite hectic parleys over the past few days, the contending parties failed to garner clear support for their candidates making the prospect of a consensus prime minister less likely by this evening.
The timeframe set by the President for formation of a consensus government is expiring at 5:00 pm today. If the bid for consensus fails, the President will have to call for a parliamentary vote for a majority government.
Early this morning, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal met Khanal at the latter’s official residence in Baluwatar and asked for UML support for Maoist PM candidate Bhattarai.
In response, the PM is said to have told Dahal that his party will decide on who to support only after going through the work plans on the peace and constitution writing processes that it has sought from the contending parties.
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