Khatmandu, May 31: Nepal’s ruling alliance and the main Opposition Maoists held talks on Sunday to set up a new coalition government after Prime Minister Madhav Nepal agreed to step down following a last- minute deal to avert a political crisis in the country last week.
Leaders of the three major political parties — the main Opposition CPN- Maoist, the Nepali Congress and the Prime Minister’s Communist Party of Nepal ( United Marxist Leninist) — met but failed to reach an agreement to put into practice the May 28 deal.
The embattled Prime Minister had agreed to step down to secure Maoists’ support to extend by one year the Constituent Assembly’s term, which was to expire on Friday.
The Maoist party had agreed to integrate the PLA combatants soon, disband the party’s Young Communist League ( YCL) and return properties seized by them during the decadelong civil war that came to an end in 2006.
UCPN- Maoist vice- chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who took part in the meeting on Sunday, said it focused on the peace and constitution drafting processes.
“ The parties differed in their interpretation of the threepoint agreement, which was signed on May 28 to extend the tenure of the Constituent Assembly,” Shrestha was quoted as saying by The Himalayan Times . “ Therefore the parties would discuss among themselves to make concrete decisions on the agreement,” he added.
Shrestha said a high- level meeting among the three major parties is planed for Monday afternoon.
Top leaders, including Maoists chairman Prachanda, vicechairman Baburam Bhattarai, Nepali Congress vice- chairman Ram Chandra Paudel, general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi and CPN- UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal attended the Sunday’s meeting.
—PTI