They suggested the leaders to adopt a policy of delineating and naming provinces on the basis of mixed identity that will reflect the presence of multiple ethnicities and neutral identity of the respective province. If the model is adopted, a province will be named after major communities and a neutral name of the respective province such as Bagmati-Newa-Tamsaling.[break]
The district chiefs arrived in the capital after leaders from Madhesi, ethnic and indigenous communities led by party´s Vice-Chairman Ashok Rai demanded the party must be ready for ethnicity-based state restructuring which is opposed by the party chairman and other top leaders.
"Top leaders were positive on the proposal to adopt the mixed identity saying they were ready to show maximum flexibility," said Sherdhan Rai, UML´s district chairman of Bhojpur. The district chiefs met party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, KP Sharma Oli and Ishwar Pokharel.
The chief of the districts pressed the leaders to come up with a clear policy saying that intra-party disputes on the issue created confusions and divisions in the party´s rank and file.
The district leaders had queried whether the party was against the identity-based federalism. The top leaders tried to allay their confusions saying that the UML was not against identity-based federalism altogether. "It is true we are against delineating and naming provinces based on the identity of a single ethnic community," Parbat Gurung of Dolakha quoted the leaders as saying.
According to him, UML leaders had exhibited flexibility on delineating and naming provinces comprising neutral as well as multiple identities but it was the UCPN (Maoist) that wasn´t ready to resolve the state restructuring disputes. "It was the Maoist leaders´ insincerity that led to the sudden demise of Constituent Assembly, but they have been feeding propaganda blaming the UML leaders for that," Gurung quoted the leaders.
The district chiefs also met Vice-Chairman Rai and urged him to seek a solution from within the party and not to make public the intra-party disputes. After widening difference with other leaders on the issue, Rai has lately stayed away from party´s standing committee, politburo and central committee meetings.
"I am preparing my paper explaining how the present problem should be settled. I will present it at the party´s meeting and try to seek solution from within the party," Gurung quoted Rai as saying.
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