The party has also completed major trainings for its cadres for the last push. According to party sources, the party has divided the cadres into three groups for the purpose. [break]
The training for the assault groups, who will be in the frontline, has already been completed. The groups include the most competent members of the Young Communist League (YCL) and former combatants.
The second group includes district level party cadres and members of various party wings. And the third group includes general party cadres and their training will continue till May 1.
On Sunday, while training Maoist-affiliated ´revolutionary´ journalists in Kathmandu, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said there was no option but to hit the streets for forming a national unity government and drafting a "people´s" constitution.
“Even if the Constituent Assembly (CA) deadline is extended, a people´s constitution will not be drafted. So ask people to come out onto the streets for a people´s constitution,” Dahal told the journalists.
Maoist General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa has taken the responsibility for whipping up the party cadres across the country. “You must come to Kathmandu with shroud cloth wrapped around your heads and flour in your bags. It will be our last battle. If we succeed, we survive, else it will be the end of our party,” Thapa said while imparting training to some 900 party cadres in Sindhupalchowk on March 18.
He told the cadres that the party will first seize the capital and then Biratnagar on May 28, the deadline for promulgation of the new constitution. He said the party expects 15,000 demonstrators from Sindhupalchowk district alone to show up in Kathmandu.
Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sharma, however, claimed that the demonstrations would be largely peaceful. “The party will follow the universal norms of democracy while launching the demonstrations and it will be largely peaceful,” he said.
The last politburo meeting of the Maoists that concluded on April 15 decided to launch massive demonstrations for a people´s constitution ahead of the May 28 deadline. The party reached the conclusion that it would be wise to hit the streets at the earliest as people would soon be busy with the rice planting.
The Maoists will formally chart out the program after assessing the demonstrations on May 1. In Kathmandu, cadres from the Maoist Newa and Tamsaling states will lead the protests.
Maoist politburo member Devendra Paudel said the demonstrations are being launched as pressure tactics to form a national government and write a people´s constitution. “The plan is to create tremendous pressure and topple the government with the least bloodshed,” said Poudel, adding that there is no other option to taking to the streets for a socialism-oriented constitution.
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