KATHMANDU, Sept 5: Leaders from the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) and the agitating Federal Socialist Party (FSP) did not sign any agreement on Wednesday even through the HLPC was ready to fulfill the FSP´s demands - to increase the number of seats in the Constituent Assembly (CA) to 601 and hold an all-party meeting to discuss the major political agenda.
Though the leaders worked on the draft of the agreement between the two sides, they couldn´t seal the political deal as the HLPC and FSP leaders differed over the contents to be mentioned in the agreement. While the HLPC leaders insisted on setting out a detailed agreement, the FSP wanted to leave the accord silent on some of the issues.[break]
The two sides had agreed to finalize the agreement in writing after HLPC leaders agreed to increase the CA´s total strength to 601 members and to convene an all-party meeting. But at the eleventh hour, the document could not be finalized as the FSP leaders were for just setting out the broader points such as an agreement on convening the roundtable meeting, while the HLPC member parties wanted to mention all the points in the deal.
“They wanted to write down everything in the deal such as agreement on increasing the number of CA seats to 601, holding a roundtable and owning up the decisions taken by the dissolved CA,” FSP General Secretary Rajendra Shrestha told Republica. “But we don´t want to reach any agreement on these issues while leaving the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist and its alliance out of the negotiations.”
Shrestha argued that these issues should be finalized during the all-party meeting so that all the other dissident political parties would also own the deal and make the coming election more meaningful. He further explained that their intention was to leave some space for bringing the Baidya-led alliance on board the election process.
“In fact, the HLPC parties have become ready to address our demands and to offer all that we have demanded but our emphasis is not only on fulfilment of our demands but also making it workable by taking the consent of all the dissident parties,” Shrestha explained.
The scenario at the HLPC secretariat at New Baneshwar took a dramatic new turn within an hour as the FSP leaders refused to sign a deal that categorically mentioned the contentious issues.
Nepali Congress leader Arjun Narasingh KC and CPN-UML´s Raghuji Pant, in the midst of the talks, informed reporters that they had already reached an agreement in principle and would finalize the draft within an hour.
But within an hour, the leaders emerged from the meeting hall and said they couldn´t sign the deal as they differed on whether or not to mention some of the points in the deal.
“We were for signing a deal that would only broadly mention the holding of a roundtable,” said Shrestha.
FSP Chairman Ashok Rai said that the talks made progress as the HLPC leaders agreed to increase the total number of CA seats to 601, which was one of their major demands.
“They [HLPC leaders] have agreed to all our demands. We decided not to sign the deal today as we needed some more time before finalizing some technical issues such as where, when and how to conduct the all-party meeting,” Rai told reporters after the meeting.
Earlier, the HLPC, while signing an agreement with the Upendra Yadav-led Madhesi People´s Rights Forum and its coalition, had agreed to increase the CA seat number to 585. Previous to that, the parties had decided to elect a 491-member CA.
Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel said that they decided to sign the deal later as “FSP leaders have sought some more time for their internal discussions and consultations regarding some procedural issues and the language of the agreement.”
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