Maoists won't join govt until unification deal: Dahal to Oli
KATHMANDU, Feb 9: CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal turned down a request from Prime Minister K P Shar...
Text Size
Small
Medium
Large
By Republica
KATHMANDU, Feb 9: CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal turned down a request from Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday to send Maoist ministers to the new cabinet arguing that they would join the government once there is a framework agreement on the proposed unification with the CPN-UML.
Dahal, however, said during a meeting with Oli that the Maoists would continue to support the government from outside until there is a deal on unification.
The meeting was held at the residence of Durga Parsain, a controversial businessman who is lobbying to get affiliation for his Jhapa-based B&C Medical College.
The meeting was held at the residence of Durga Parsain, a controversial businessman who is lobbying to get affiliation for his Jhapa-based B&C Medical College.
With the Maoist Center putting pre-conditions to join the government, leaders have hinted at the possibility of delay in cabinet expansion. Oli last week returned to the helm of power with support from the Maoist Center, sixteen months after he was forced to step down.
Despite rounds of meetings held since the alliance of the two parties swept the parliamentary and provincial polls, UML and Maoist Center have failed to strike a deal on merger owing to a host of factors including row over ideology and management of senior leaders.
Sunday's meeting, the first meeting since Oli became prime minister, ended inconclusively after the two leaders failed to agree on disputed issues. While UML has insisted that the people's multiparty democracy should be the political line of the party, Maoists have strongly objected to the proposal.
"We have demonstrated utmost flexibility on other issues but there cannot be compromise on the ideology. If UML is sincere about unity, it should be flexible to sort out the ideological and theoretical issues out without any delay," said Maoist Spokesperson Pampha Bhusal.
Briefing the party leaders in an internal meeting, Maoist Chair Dahal said that the people's multiparty democracy was unacceptable for the former rebel party.
"Some UML leaders are raising issue of political line. It is a little surprising to see this issue being raised at this critical time when there had been agreement to adopt different ideology," Dahal told party leaders, hinting that some leaders were trying to sabotage the talks.
Dahal, however, told leaders that he was still positive about striking a deal.
Last week, Maoist and UML leaders had claimed that there had been agreement on over 90 percent of issues. According to the leaders, there has been agreement on several issues pertaining to power sharing and leadership of the new party. As per the understanding reached on leadership, Oli and Dahal had agreed, in principle, last week to adopt parallel leadership, besides rotating the power of the government.
