KATHMANDU, Nov 18: As the general strike launched by Madhes-based political parties completes three months, talks between the major political forces and the agitating parties scheduled for Wednesday are expected to make some headway.
Leaders from various political parties held several rounds of informal negotiations among key leaders from Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) to forge a common understanding about addressing the Madhes-based political parties’ demands on provincial boundaries, among other things, and to negotiate with them on Wednesday accordingly.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has taken initiatives to find some common grounds on resolving the disputes.
He has reportedly floated some ideas to accommodate the concerns of the agitating political parties by redrawing the proposed provincial boundaries and entrusting a high-level political body with finalizing the proposals within a period of one month.
According to his aide Chudamani Khadka, Dahal is for delineating a province covering southern plains from Nawalparasi to Bardiya and entrusting a high-level political body to settle the issues of some of the disputed districts including Kailali, Kanchanpur and Rukum, within a month.
He, however, said that Dahal’s proposal is silent about Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari.
On Tuesday, he held several rounds of talks with some key leaders from major political parties including Krishna Sitaula of Nepali Congress, Bishnu Poudel of CPN-UML, Bijay Gachchhadar of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic and Upendra Yadav of Federal Socialist Forum Nepal.
Also, some NC and UML leaders were holding talks till late evening Tuesday in their efforts to forge common stance for Wednesday’s talks.
Mahantha Thakur, the chairman of the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party, said that he didn’t leave Kathmandu even during Chhath festival as Dahal had requested him to stay in the capital with a view to make the talks decisive.
“Dahalji told me that he will take initiatives to forge a common proposal of the three major political parties and come up with a concrete idea at the next talks,” Thakur told Republica. “Therefore, I am staying here with the hope to make the talks result-oriented.”
UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, however, is still not very optimistic about the talks seeing a breakthrough.
“There is no such progress and preparations to make the talks decisive,” he said.
Government sources said the prime minister is open to resolving the Madhes issue through political understanding.
Minister for Law and Justice Agni Kharel said if the three major political parties agree on a common proposal for resolving the Madhes issue, the government will support it.
Meanwhile, in a latest statement, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said that he wants to see Wednesday’s talks to be decisive and the deadlock resolved. “This is an issue of our own and we friends can sit for talks and reach a conclusion keeping our differences aside,” he said after attending a Chhath festivities at Kamalpokhari in Kathmandu on Tuesday.
He has reportedly floated some ideas to accommodate the concerns of the agitating political parties by redrawing the proposed provincial boundaries and entrusting a high-level political body with finalizing the proposals within a period of one month.
According to his aide Chudamani Khadka, Dahal is for delineating a province covering southern plains from Nawalparasi to Bardiya and entrusting a high-level political body to settle the issues of some of the disputed districts including Kailali, Kanchanpur and Rukum, within a month.
He, however, said that Dahal’s proposal is silent about Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari.
On Tuesday, he held several rounds of talks with some key leaders from major political parties including Krishna Sitaula of Nepali Congress, Bishnu Poudel of CPN-UML, Bijay Gachchhadar of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic and Upendra Yadav of Federal Socialist Forum Nepal.
Also, some NC and UML leaders were holding talks till late evening Tuesday in their efforts to forge common stance for Wednesday’s talks.
Mahantha Thakur, the chairman of the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party, said that he didn’t leave Kathmandu even during Chhath festival as Dahal had requested him to stay in the capital with a view to make the talks decisive.
“Dahalji told me that he will take initiatives to forge a common proposal of the three major political parties and come up with a concrete idea at the next talks,” Thakur told Republica. “Therefore, I am staying here with the hope to make the talks result-oriented.”
UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, however, is still not very optimistic about the talks seeing a breakthrough.
“There is no such progress and preparations to make the talks decisive,” he said.
Government sources said the prime minister is open to resolving the Madhes issue through political understanding.
Minister for Law and Justice Agni Kharel said if the three major political parties agree on a common proposal for resolving the Madhes issue, the government will support it.
Meanwhile, in a latest statement, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said that he wants to see Wednesday’s talks to be decisive and the deadlock resolved. “This is an issue of our own and we friends can sit for talks and reach a conclusion keeping our differences aside,” he said after attending a Chhath festivities at Kamalpokhari in Kathmandu on Tuesday.
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