KATHMANDU, July 12: Within a couple of hours of the CPN (Maoist Center) claiming that it has reached an agreement with the Nepali Congress (NC) to form the new government, NC leader Gopal Man Shrestha said that his party has not  reached any such agreement – neither written nor verbal – with the Maoists.

“Till date, no agreement has been signed with the CPN (Maoist Center),”  Shrestha told Republica Online, “The party’s central committee meeting to be held tomorrow will take a decision regarding this.”

At a press conference organized at CPN (Maoist Center) Parliamentary Party Office in Singha Durbar earlier this afternoon, Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara had claimed that his party has already reached an agreement with the NC about forming a new government. 

However, NC leader Shrestha said, “Yesterday (Monday), Maoist Chair Prachanda had requested us to agree to form the next government. But our president (Sher Bahadur Deuba) told him that no such agreemernt could be signed until the Maoists withdrew its  support to the Oli government.”