KATHMANDU, Jan 24: The United Democratic Madhesi Front, a major partner of the ruling coalition, has ruled out the possibility of forming an alliance with the UCPN (Maoist) for Constituent Assembly (CA) polls while stating that a national consensus government-led by opposition parties will also not be acceptable to them.
“The leaders maintained that UDMF should not form an alliance with the UCPN (Maoist) for holding CA polls stating that the latter is also one of the forces overshadowing the Madhesi issues,” Senior Vice-chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) Rameshwar Raya Yadav told Republica about the conclusion of the two-day meeting of the Madhesi alliance held at Gokarna Resort. [break]
According to Sadbhawana Party Spokesperson Santosh Kumar Mehta, the meeting concluded that UDMF should not accept formation of a national consensus government as the opposition parties are reluctant to join a government under the leadership of any ruling party.
"Why should we accept a government-led by any opposition party as they have made it clear that a government formed under leadership of a ruling party will not be acceptable to them? Mehta added.
Madhesi leaders said that they would not accept a government-led either by the Nepali Congress (NC) or the CPN-UML and accused both of the parties of standing against Madhesi issues.
"They [NC and CPN-UML] termed the four-point agreement anti-national and they are against autonomous Madhes province. How can we accept a government led by them," Yadav argued, adding, "We want east-west delineation of Madhes province while they are for north-south delineation."
Mehta said a national consensus government should be formed under the leadership of an independent person if opposition parties do not want to join the new government-led by any ruling party.
UDMF meeting concluded that promulgation of a new statute from outside the CA would not be acceptable to them. Also, the Madhesi alliance has stressed on fresh CA polls rather than revival of the dissolved CA.
“The old CA had failed to resolve disputed issues. So, new CA members should come with a fresh mandate,” Yadav stated.
The meeting also decided to exert pressure on the UCPN (Maoist) to address Madhesi issues, including implementation of the four-point agreement between the UDMF and UCPN (Maoist) prior to prime ministerial election in the parliament in August 2011.
According to Yadav, UDMF acknowledged that it had failed to address the issue of recruiting Madhesi youths in the national army and resolving citizenship problems, among other Madhesi agendas of the Madhes movement.
Leaders said that they would make public the decisions taken by the two-day meeting of UDMF on Thursday.
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