Talking briefly to media persons during a tea reception hosted by the party at its headquarters in Sanepa on Monday afternoon, Koirala also ruled out the possibility of reviving the dissolved CA as proposed by the UCPN (Maoist) and some senior leaders of his party. "There won´t be CA revival at any cost. We should go to the people for fresh mandate," he said.[break]
Koirala said he also told UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had also reached Sanepa to attend the tea reception, not to keep advocating for CA revival. "I told Prachandaji [Dahal] not to bring the same proposal every time to resolve the deadlock. Our CWC meeting scheduled to begin from Wednesday will take a formal decision to go for fresh polls," he said.
NC has so far kept open the option of CA revival as a way to end the deadlock as senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel have been arguing that it would be the legitimate way to resolve the impasse.
Koirala, however, added that there must be a new national consensus government to hold free and fair CA election. He said NC along with other opposition parties would take to the streets after Tihar to oust the current government if Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai did not resign.
Koirala´s remarks come at a time when the ruling UCPN (Maoist) has been arguing that CA revival would be the best option to end the deadlock. Another opposition party, CPN-UML, however, has already decided to go for fresh polls.
Talking to media persons, senior leader Deuba said as former chief justices have also suggested reviving the parliament it is tantamount to reviving the CA. He argued that CA revival is a must even to bring amendments to the interim constitution to go for fresh polls.
NC Vice-president Paudel said fresh polls have now become inevitable to resolve the deadlock. He argued that since there has not been any agreement among parties on the contentious issues of the new statute there is no possibility of promulgating the new statute through the revived CA.
Leaders from various political parties including UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Dahal, CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and former speaker Subas Chandra Nembang had attended the tea reception.
Talking briefly to media persons, Dahal said he is optimistic that they would be able to reach consensus to resolve the deadlock before Tihar. "We will eventually go for CA polls even after CA revival. I am optimistic that we will reach consensus before Tihar," Dahal said.
Likewise, UML Chairman Khanal said there must first be a national consensus government to hold fresh polls. He also said that the opposition parties would intensity protests after Tihar if Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai did not step down to pave the way for formation of such a government. "New budget is not possible without parties arriving at a consensus," he added.
Chairman of the newly-formed CPN-Maoist Mohan Baidya said they would fully support the opposition parties´ protests to oust the Bhattarai-led government. "There should be serious discussions on how to promulgate the new statute after forming a new government," he said.
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