The three parties will hold a meeting Thursday morning to reach consensus on the issue of government leadership and the number of Maoist combatants to be integrated into state forces even if they fail to strike a package deal. [break]
Top leaders of the three major political parties reached a conclusion in this regard during a meeting held at Maoist party headquarters at Paris Danda on Wednesday.
“History has directed us to reach an agreement while conceding our mistakes,” said Maoist Vice-Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha after the meeting. The leaders would sit together at the International Conference Hall, New Baneshwar in presence of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal at 8 a.m. Thursday, he said.
During the meeting, the leaders of the ruling parties told the top Maoist brass how they would be in the bad books of history if they continue to bicker over whether the prime minister should resign first or after the a package deal is inked.
The Maoists, however, replied that they cannot lend support to the issue of CA term extension under the current political status.
Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and leaders Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Ram Bahadur Thapa, CP Gajurel and Shrestha from the Maoist side; NC Acting president Sushil Koirala, and leaders Sher Bahadur Deuba, Ram Chandra Poudel, Bimalendra Nidhi and Arjun Narsingh KC from the NC; and UML leaders Jhalanath Khanal and leaders Ishwar Pokharel, Bishnu Paudel and Bharat Mohan Adhikari were present during the meeting.
The Maoists have been demanding resignation of the prime minister before the number of combatants to be integrated into the state forces is fixed, while the ruling parties want the integration issues to be sorted out before the prime minister´s resignation.
“Though we agreed on the issue of CA term extension, we differed on the modality of consensus in this regard,” said UML leader Pradip Gyawali.
The ruling parties also told the Maoists that they cannot “humiliate” the prime minister by forcing him to step down before reaching consensus on the issues related to the peace process. “That´s the reason why the prime minister would be invited to the meeting on Thursday,” said a leader.
The leaders, however, agreed to find some middle-path to end the current impasse. According to sources, the leaders also discussed some modalities of consensus.
“One modality is the prime minister can declare from the rostrum in parliament that he is ready to resign if the parties reach consensus on the issues related to the peace process. That would be as good as resignation,” said a leader.
The ruling parties proposed a confidential deal on the number of combatants to be integrated into the state forces if doing so publicly could place the Maoist leadership in difficulty. “Thus the top leaders can hold a confidential meeting and make a gentleman´s agreement on the issue,” said the leader.
It was the first time that the NC and UML leaders, except UML chairman Khanal, reached the Maoist party headquarters. Dahal had told them in jest that setting up such a huge party office meant the Maoists have really joined multiparty politics.
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