The meeting decided to concentrate the party´s efforts to convert the present coalition into a national consensus government. "But if that is not possible, the party should also be ready to form a national consensus government," read the statement issued by party secretary Yuvaraj Gyawali.[break]
According to a leader present at the meeting, when the option for forming national consensus government was discussed, the prime minister said he was flexible but it was not necessary to mention the words "paving the way for national consensus government" in the decision.
"But there was no one to support him [prime minister]. Even Vice Chairman Bamdev Gautam suggested to the prime minister not to go back on his past commitments to national consensus," said a leader. According to him, Gautam was of the view that there was nothing wrong in becoming ready to pave the way for consensus government. "It is good if other parties become ready for forming national consensus government, which the UML and its chairman are advocated for," the leader quoted Gautam as saying at the meeting.
A proposal presented by party general secretary Ishwar Pokharel on behalf of the party secretariat for discussion at the politburo meeting on Sunday suggested to Khanal to be ready to step down and pave the way for formation of a national consensus government.
The proposal suggested integrating only 5,000 Maoist combatants into government security agency and to extend the CA term by six months only.
But the meeting decided to remain open on fixing integration numbers and duration of the CA´s new term.
The politburo came up with a conclusion that further discussions are needed for settling the thorny issues with regard to constitution writing, even as the proposal suggested directly-elected president and parliament-elected prime minister. Similarly, the meeting said the party needed more discussions before finalizing electoral system and a federal model. The secretariat´s document had proposed a Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) Electoral System in the new constitution.
Leaders close to Prime Minister Khanal were critical of the proposal as it was prepared by some leaders close to the chairman´s rival faction led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli. Leaders from Nepal-Oli camp claimed that the politburo meeting largely endorsed the proposal except few provisions.
But those close to the prime minister claimed that many ideas floated in the proposal was rejected by the politburo as they were influenced by other parties like Nepali Congress.
UML Vice-chairman Ashok Rai, who is close to Khanal, said the proposal to pave the way for consensus government is an irrelevant and old idea which they repeated for months last year but didn´t work.
The prime minister´s press advisor Surya Thapa claimed the wordings like ´paving the way for national consensus´ would make no difference for the prime minister because he was the one who consistently advocated the idea. "It is not new thing for him. And if the parties come at one place it will be the victory of his policy," he claimed.
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