A Central Committee meeting of the Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) held on Wednesday reviewed the progress made so far in unification talks held with the top leaders of other Madhes-based parties in recent weeks. [break]
“Our chairman has been intensifying talks for unification with all Madhes-based parties,” TMDP Vice Chairman Brikhesh Chandra Lal told Republica. “But the talks have not yet yielded any results.”
A party insider requesting anonymity told Republica that chiefs of all Madhesi parties are seeking the top position of the unified party. “While Upendra Yadav says that he rightfully deserves the post as he had spearheaded the Madhes movement, Rajendra Mahato has staked his claim to the leadership of the unified party by virtue of his Sadbhawana Party becoming the oldest party in Madhes.
Also Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar has staked claim to the top post arguing that he is a single leader in Madhes, who can generate financial resource to efficiently run the party.
Gachchhadar claimed that both the international community and non-Madhesi parties are also not in the favor of unification between the Madhesi parties. “If Madhes-based parties unite, India´s influence in Nepal´s domestic affairs would increase further,” he said, adding, “Other countries are wary of India´s influence in Nepal.”
On a separate context, CC meeting of TMDP, according to Vice Chairman Lal, concluded that constituency delineation in Madhesh should be based on Clause 3 (a) of Article 63 of Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007. “We need 50 percent representation as more than 50 percent of the total population of the country is based in Tarai,” he said.
The constitutional provision states that “members to be elected on the basis of first-past-the-post will be elected on the basis of one member from each of the 240 election constituencies delimited by the Election Constituency Delimitation Commission in accordance with the population fixed by the national census preceding the CA election, and for this purpose an administrative district will be treated as an election district, with the number of constituencies therein determined on the basis of the population of that district.”
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