The UCPN (Maoist) and a few other parties in the alliance are for giving the ruling parties additional time for seeking a consensus environment. However, some parties in the alliance have demanded that the second phase of protest programs be unveiled without delay.
A meeting of the 30-party alliance has been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon to review the ongoing formal and informal talks with the ruling parties and discuss the future course. According to a leader of the alliance, the Upendra Yadav-led Madhesi People’s Rights Forum Nepal (MPRF-N) and the Sadbhawana Party believe that they should not delay unveiling another round of protests, claiming that the ruling parties’ appeal for dialogue is nothing but a strategy for foiling the protests.
“It is crystal clear that their intention is not good and they just want to thwart our agitations,” Sadbhawana Chairman Rajendra Mahato told Republica on Monday. “So we are for another round of protests as the basis for that has been created by the earlier round.”
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Meanwhile, Bijaya Gachchhedar-led Madhesi People’s Rights Forum Democratic (MPRF-D) General Secretary Ramjanam Chaudari said that the alliance is not for launching its second round protests in a hurry. “We are focusing on dialogue and consensus for a few weeks more as the environment for this has emerged with the approach made for talks by the ruling parties. So we are not for going for the second-phase protests until the third week of March,” said Chaudari. According to him, a meeting of the opposition alliance slated for Tuesday would limit itself to a review.
Likewise, UCPN (Maoist) Secretary Barsha Man Pun said that the opposition alliance is ready to wait for a few additional days before announcing another round of protests. “If the alliance meeting comes to the conclusion that the environment for a result-oriented dialogue has emerged, we are positive about postponing our protests,” he said.
The opposition alliance has been claiming that its second-round protests will be ‘action-oriented’.
Sources said that there is a huge gulf between parties within the alliance over whether to focus on consensus or to go for protests. The issue has led to a rift in the United Democratic Madhesi Front, after two of its constituent parties appeared rigid in favor of dialogue, said another leader. “We are not going to back away from another round of protests even if some parties in the alliance seem to be reluctant,” Mahato said, indicating MPRF-D.
However, MPRF-D’s Chaudhari claimed that the alliance would take these parties into confidence for any postponement of the consensus ultimatum.
