The meeting held at Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s residence at Nayabazaar failed to make any breakthrough after the UML rejected the Maoist conditions, including resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and amendment to the interim constitution, for CA term extension. [break]
Chairman Dahal, and leaders Mohan Baidya, Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Narayankaji Shrestha from the Maoist and UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and leaders Bishnu Poudel and Bharat Mohan Adhikari were present during the meeting.
“We want to draft the constitution. But we will approve the CA term extension only if the prime minister resigns,” said Maoist leader Shrestha.
He said that if the current government resigns and constitution-drafting is ensured, the Maoists are ready to lend support CA term extension.
The UML had urged the Maoists not to link the resignation of prime minister with the CA term extension.
“Let´s not link the issue of CA term extension with the resignation of prime minister,” said UML leader Adhikari. He said the Maoists rejected the UML offer to strike a deal in a package.
“But they insisted that they cannot strike any deal before the resignation of the prime minister and amending the interim constitution to go for consensus system,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari said the political parties should sit together for the next four days to iron out the differences, but averred that the prime minister would not resign without Maoists agreeing to a package deal, including the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants.
Meanwhile, the phase of putting forward views by the leaders has come to an end at the ongoing Maoist central committee meeting which began on Friday. On Monday, Maoist chairman Dahal will reply members´ queries.
The central committee is divided over the issue of CA term extension. The party central committee will synthesize the views of the members and take a decision on the issue.
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