'Maoists positive about CA term extension'

KATHMANDU, May 20: Leaders of 12 small political parties who talked to top leaders of the big three parties Thursday found main opposition UCPN (Maoist) leaders notably flexible about ending the ongoing political deadlock and extending the Constituent Assembly (CA) term.



The Maoist leaders in recent days have been insisting that they can´t vote in favor of the bill registered in parliament by the government for Constituent Assembly (CA) term extension unless the ruling coalition addresses their two preconditions. [break]



The Maoists have been demanding that the prime minister resign and the ruling parties provide constitutional guarantee for formation of consensus government by replacing the existing provision of forming majority government.



According to the leaders involved in the talks, the Maoist leaders didn´t raise the issue of prime minister´s resignation in the meeting with 12 political parties.



“They didn´t even mention the issue of prime minister´s resignation during the meeting,” Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, co-chairman of Rastriya Janashakti Party, said after the meeting. The Maoist leaders presented themselves quite positively in the meeting, he added.



The small parties convened the joint meeting with a view to press the major parties for immediate CA term extension. “We urged them not to further delay the process of CA term extension,” Lohani said.



According to him, small party leaders urged the Maoist to deal with other political agendas and the issue of CA term extension separately.



“Ending the deadlock by forging national consensus is a better option. Let´s forge a consensus and extend the CA term in the next one or two days,” Keshav Mainali of Chure Bhawar Rastriya Ekta Party Nepal, quoted Maoist Deputy Parliamentary Party leader Narayankaji Shrestha as saying.



Former Prime Minister and Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Lokendra Bahadur Chand urged the major party leaders to save the CA. “We mustn´t take any step toward dissolving it. If there is no CA, we will not even have such a national institution where we can seek a solution,” leaders quoted Chand as saying in the meeting.



Shrestha and Chief Whip Post Bahadur Bogati from UCPN (Maoist), Deputy Parliamentary Party leader Prakash Man Singh, General Secretary Bimalendra Nidhi and Chief Whip Laxman Ghimire from Nepali Congress and party Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Chief Whip Bhim Acharya from CPN-UML were present in the meeting.

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